A Cowboy in Disguise (15 page)

They walked into the house and a few minutes later, Alexandra sat cross-legged in front of the fireplace, pulling first one photo album and then another into her lap. Scott’s whole life was open to her as she saw picture after picture of the baby becoming a boy, and the boy becoming a man.

Scott emerged from the kitchen with two steaming mugs of hot chocolate. “Oh, no.” He winced visibly. “Bare bottoms and bear skin rugs.”

“I was thinking of swiping a couple of these for the break room bulletin board.”

Alexandra’s hair cascaded loosely down her back, glowing warmly in the firelight. Scott could imagine her with him like this forever. She fit so naturally into his life without even trying. Alexandra challenged him in the office and complemented him in this place so far removed from it. He ached for her. He’d never ached for anyone before.

“I wish I could have met your mother while she was alive,” she said, “She must have been an amazing person.”

“She was.”

“And I can’t believe how cute you were as a child. The girls must have run wild after you in school.” She flipped another page over.

Alexandra looked up from the photo album when Scott didn’t say anything. The bare desire in his eyes reached her immediately and she drew in a quick breath as his mere expression uncoiled her own desire deep within her.

Scott set down the hot chocolate and closed the distance between him and Alexandra in a single step. He dropped on his knees to the floor and twined his hands into her hair.

She rose to her own knees, pressing closer to him as he kissed her softly.

“What have you done to me?” Scott ran his hands violently through his own dark hair and gave a little laugh. Frustration glittered somewhere in his eyes. “I had more control when I was the walking teenage hormone you saw in those pictures.”

With a trembling hand, Alexandra picked up the photo album she had been begun looking through. As she moved to put it back in its place, a single photo slid from its pages and dropped to the floor. She knew its subject all too well and it froze her.

Scott took the picture from her shaking fingers and saw the image of his own smiling face and his arm around Mac Stevens. He didn’t even remember where they’d taken that picture, nor did he care.

Alexandra whispered the first thing she thought. “What do you feel when you see Mac Stevens?”

“Nothing good. Nothing at all really.” He flung the picture into the fire and watched the flames curl around the paper and obliterate the memory captured there. “Nothing like what I feel when I see you.”

His blue eyes were dark with emotion and Alexandra put her fingers up to his lips.

“That was
not
a sign,” he said.

“But, we keep coming back to the same issue. We’re colleagues working together on an important presentation. I admit everything has changed, but I really think we ought to wait and talk about this subject after the presentation when there isn’t so much money at stake for so many people. We just need to focus a little bit longer.”

“I hate this, you know.”

“Me, too.”

Chapter Nine

Alexandra awoke the next morning with a long, cat-like stretch and looked at the clock. Why hadn’t anyone gotten her up in time to help feed the cattle? Not that she’d been much help the last time, but she couldn’t let a chance to sit on the back of a hay wagon with Scott pass her by. She jumped out of bed, took a quick shower and ran downstairs. From the silence in the house, she knew she was already too late.

Scott sat in the kitchen with a pile of business magazines and paperwork scattered out on the table. “Hi.” He smiled broadly.

“Why didn’t you wake me up?”

“I thought I’d let you sleep in. We have hired hands come help out a few times a week, and they took care of feeding today. Dad and the rest of the gang left for town a few minutes ago. I have the distinct impression they’re trying to give us some privacy.” He smiled at her over his cup of coffee.

At least she hadn’t missed anything. Alexandra poured her own cup and sat down next to him. He hadn’t shaven again, she noticed. She hadn’t seen him like that since they were stuck in the cabin together. Scott seemed so potently male with his stubble and denim shirt. She noticed his well-manicured hands and perfectly trimmed hair, which somehow seemed to complement his rugged look instead of clashing with it. He was a contradiction sometimes—one she couldn’t stop trying to figure out.

“What are you working on?” she finally asked.

He looked up from his spreadsheets to her face, fresh and bright with the morning. This was an Alexandra Hunter he would have hardly recognized not long ago. She was well-rested, relaxed, and looking at him with an expression of open interest in her eyes.

“I’m thinking about putting together a business plan,” he answered. “There’s a thousand-acre chunk of land that backs up to our fence line just over the hill.”

“You need more land?” The ranch already seemed huge to her as it was.

“We might.” Scott looked at her for a moment as if debating letting her in on a secret mission. “See, Elliot and his wife are thinking of coming back from New York. They don’t want to raise a family in the city. Can’t say that I blame them.”

“So he wants to expand the ranch?”

“Well, we don’t have enough rangeland to run enough additional cattle—we wouldn’t even with that new piece. But, if Elliot gives up his cushy, six-figure job to move back, we’ll need to come up with some other way to generate a lot of extra income here.” He held up a handful of flyers and a spreadsheet filled with pencil marks.

Alexandra loved watching him work his magic with numbers as he added up columns in his head. A calculator sat on the edge of the table, but he never seemed to think to reach for it.

“So what have you come up with?” she asked.

“A working dude ranch.” He grinned. “I think we can make it pay off.”

Alexandra laughed. “Okay, Tom Sawyer.”

Scott shot her an intrigued look.

“It’s like the white-washed fence story,” she said. “People will actually pay you to come out and experience ranch life because it’s a novelty for them. They’ll pay you while you ‘let’ them do your chores. And they’ll get a huge kick out of doing them.” She shook her head and took a sip of coffee. “You’ll make money hand over fist.”

“Then it must be a good idea, huh?” He stacked the papers neatly into a single pile and dropped his pencil on top.

Alexandra nodded. “I think it’s brilliant.” She propped herself up on her elbow and smiled at him again. She couldn’t remember ever feeling so good in the morning. “The land is so amazing, how could anyone pass up seeing it—even if only for a week or two? So what would you build on the extra thousand acres?”

“There’s a pretty little meadow right on the edge of it. We could build five or six small log cabins there. It’s mostly timberland up behind the meadow, so we could mark out horse riding trails, hiking trails—who knows? We could even put in a fishing pond or another swimming hole or something. And barbecue pits to go with the picnic area. Craig would never let me hear the end of it if we didn’t barbecue something for the visitors.”

“It sounds like so much fun. I’ll be your first guest when you open for business.” She took a sip of her coffee. “I can just imagine all the exciting things you’ll do with it.”

“Have you ever thought of leaving corporate life, Alex?”

“I really hadn’t,” she said softly. “But I have to admit that after seeing this place, the view of downtown Seattle from my office window hardly seems as appealing. I look at this place and I think I’ve been stuck in a rut my entire life and I didn’t even know it.”

Scott leaned back in his chair and stretched his long legs out under the table. “To tell you the truth, Chicago isn’t that appealing either. Never has been. I love numbers, business, my family and this land. The rest is just a means to an end.”

“You’re saying you’d do what Elliot is going to do?”

“Maybe someday. When I have a reason to.” He leaned forward. “But enough of that. We’ve got a bottle baby to feed.”

“A bottle baby?”

“I’ll introduce you to him in a minute. I’d better get his breakfast ready first.”

Alexandra watched as Scott went to the sink and mixed some special powdered milk up in a bowl with warm water. He poured about a quart of the liquid into a large bottle and pulled a giant rubber nipple over the top of it.

Scott took Alexandra by the hand and grinned as he led her to the barn. As they neared a pen, a shiny little black nose poked out from between the boards.

“This is Huey,” Scott said. “His mother disappeared this winter. I think he’s more pig than calf from the way he goes through bottles.”

Alexandra reached her hand through the panels and gently touched the curly top of the calf’s head. Its soft, white hair tickled her fingers as she petted the little animal. “I’ve never seen anything so sweet.”

“They always look cute and clean when they’re babies. Wait until he gets bigger. Then it’ll be a whole ‘
nother
story,”

“Can I try?” Alexandra asked.

Scott put the big bottle into her smaller, feminine hands. “Hold onto the bottle like this.” He moved close to her, feeling the heat from her body as he wrapped his arms around her. “He’ll pull the top off if you’re not careful.”

Alexandra lowered the bottle between the boards and laughed when the little calf nudged it hard. His big, brown eyes rolled back as he greedily gulped down the warm liquid. Happy to be fed, his tail swung side to side almost like a puppy’s.

Scott leaned close to Alexandra’s ear and said, “Pull it back for a second and let some air in the bottle.”

Chills swept through Alexandra’s body at the nearness of Scott’s lips to her neck and ears. He hadn’t touched her when he spoke, but the thought of him so close to her had nearly the same effect. Just as she had been attracted to his suave businessman charm the minute she first saw him on the freeway, now her heart pounded at the rugged strength she saw in him here. He was the best of both worlds, and the careful touch of his hand on hers was driving her wild.

When the calf drained the bottle, she turned to Scott. “What do I do next?”

“You kiss me?”

She felt the calf tug on the tail of her shirt through the boards, leaving a glob of milk slobber there. Alexandra made a little noise. “Yuck. Drool.”

Scott pulled away from her. “Come on. I don’t kiss that badly.”

Alexandra giggled. “Enough already,” she half-laughed. “We’re crossing that line again.” Yet she wanted to keep crossing it.

Scott stepped away from her reluctantly. “I guess that brings us back to a thrilling choice of chores or office talk.”

“Or,” she said with a suggestive laugh, “we could forget about talking at all and see if the ice on your pond is thick enough to hold up a couple of ice-skaters.”

Scott grinned broadly as childhood memories with his brothers rushed back to him. “I can show you an even better twist on that idea.”

Intrigued, Alexandra picked up the fallen milk bottle and carried it back into the house. She grabbed a dry pair of gloves and a thicker scarf. “I’m ready,” she declared.

Scott zipped his coat up to his throat and led her down a bank into a field. He pushed aside a bunch of cold, brown willow limbs and ushered Alexandra down into the wide ditch that twisted through the property.

“There was always too much snow on top of the ice on the pond. So, Craig, Joe, Elliot and I would come here instead. There’s enough brush lining the sides of the ditch to hold out a little of the white stuff. We don’t even need ice skates.”

Alexandra grabbed his gloved hand to steady herself as she stepped out onto the slick surface. “How deep is the water under us?” she asked.

“Only a foot or so. That’s another bonus. No messy, irritating
drownings
.”

For once, in how many years she couldn’t imagine, not a single thought of the office weighed on Alexandra Hunter. She felt like a little girl and a woman rolled into one. There were no nagging feelings about some task left undone at work. She didn’t feel the need to strap her cell phone onto her belt or log in to check her e-mail. She was free with Scott Falconer, loved the way she felt near him, loved the way he smiled at her …