Buck (Rope 'n Ride #1) (16 page)

Chapter Thirteen

Buck walked into the barn, his shoulders slumped and feeling as if a boulder weighted him. Wynonna and Ma were in the back dragging old equipment and tack out of the corner. Dust choked the air and Buck sneezed.

They looked up at him through the swirling particles. “What the hell are you doing?” he asked.

“Cleaning out the barn for your reception.”

His heart flipped painfully. His wheezing sigh had more to do with his emotions than the allergens fogging the space.

Ma swept a hand to the right. “We know you’re head over boots for that woman, so don’t even question the wedding. It’s happening. Dance floor here. Band right there.”

“Bridal table here.” Wynonna pointed toward the wall where a few windows would toss pale evening light on the bride and groom. If there were actually to be some, that was.

“Have you gotten your tuxes yet?”

Buck shook his head, unable to speak. Since he had too many brothers and Channing had only wanted Wynonna, he’d long ago asked Asher to stand up for him as best man.

He turned his head to look at the space—right now a cruddy barn. He shook his head. “I don’t see it.”

Wynonna snorted. “Men.”

He’d forgotten why he’d come into the barn in the first place. To cover his confusion, he walked to the horse stall farthest from the females in his life. He’d been more than lost in the past few days since leaving Channing in Billings. Nobody had asked him where she was or what had happened between them. He had a feeling Ridge had covered for him.

Voices sounded from the open door, and he caught bits of speech.

“Channing—”

“—for?”

“Up her sleeve.”

He practically leaped out at his brothers. They stopped scooping chicken shit out of the coop and looked at him as if he’d lost his mind.

Buck’s chest heaved. “What’s this about Channing?”

Ryder did that thing with his lips that meant he didn’t want to tell. Since they were kids, he’d done this and Buck had figured out that tickling him worked well. But it’d be weird to tickle a grown man now. He settled for intimidation.

He swaggered up to his brothers and glared at Ryder. “What about Channing?”

“Back off, Buck.”

“Not until you tell me what you’re talking about.”

Ridge shook his head and started scooping out manure at a fast pace.

Fury whirled through Buck like a tornado, whipping up too many feelings of worry and fear. A devastating black cloud he couldn’t control.

He slammed the heels of his hands off Ryder’s chest. He rocked back but didn’t even stumble, which only pissed Buck off more.

“Cut it out, Buck.” Ridge almost sounded bored but Ryder’s eyes gleamed with anger. Exactly what Buck wanted—a fight.

When he swung at Ridge’s midsection, his brother sidestepped, lightning fast. A growl burst from Buck as he hurled himself at his brother. They went down, rolling. Suddenly their ma was screaming at them and Ridge and West pulled them apart before Buck even landed one satisfying punch.

He shook loose of West’s hold and glared at Ryder.

“What’s this about?” Ma asked, gloved hands planted on her hips.

“Buck thinks we’re hiding something from him about his fiancée. I don’t know why he doesn’t just ask her himself.” Ryder looked beyond Buck.

His stomach dropped out. Channing couldn’t be standing there, could she?

He turned slowly and saw her, long blonde hair teased by the wind and a mutinous expression on her pretty face. As she stomped up to them, he stopped caring about why she was pissed off and focused on the fact that she was here.

She must not have stayed in Billings that long. Either that or she’d driven nonstop to get home. He skated his gaze over her curves, barely registering the rumpled state of her clothing. He grabbed her hips and yanked her to him, locking her to his chest and crushing his lips down on hers.

“Ew, cooties,” one of his brothers joked to several chuckles. But Buck didn’t care. He probed the tight seam of Channing’s lips with his tongue.

With a gasp, she let him in. He plunged his tongue inside, groaning as he tasted mint and caught the scents of his own body wash on her. She spun her arms around his neck and lifted on tiptoe to kiss him back with abandon.

His mind pulsated on one fact: she was here. But that didn’t mean she was here to stay, he reminded himself. But he’d do everything in his power to keep her here.

He spread his hands across her round ass and kneaded it. Her breath hitched. He tasted passion and lust and…tears?

He pulled back to look at her face. Sure enough her eyes swam and one drop broke free and rolled down her cheek.

“Oh darlin’.” He looked at the empty yard and the abandoned chicken coop. Nobody was around but that didn’t mean they weren’t nearby. The place was crawling with Calhouns and cameramen.

In fact, this was all being caught on film.

“Dammit.” He grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the house. She dug in her heels.

“Wait, Buck. I need you to do something first.”

“I know exactly what I’m doing first. Getting you naked in my bed. You’ve kept me waiting too long, Channing.”

She let him drag her into his bedroom. He kicked the door shut and reached for her.

“No, Buck. We need you to call Ennis right now.”

It took several heartbeats for his mind to catch up to her words. His cock throbbed for release and he hungered for another taste of her. He shook himself like a dog. “Ennis?”

“Yes, didn’t Ryder tell you?” Her face registered understanding. “Oh you were going to beat it out of him.”

He made a noise, deep in his throat. “You’d better fill me in right now before I finish pounding my little brother into the dirt.”

“It’s not Ryder’s fault. I told him not to tell you yet but I was delayed on the highway—an accident eastbound—and now there’s no time to waste!”

He stared into her face. “Tell me what’s going on.”

“Ryder has a friend coming over and we need Ennis to be here when he arrives.”

“Channing.” His warning tone seemed to fluster her more. She raised a finger to her hair, a dead giveaway that she needed a thorough fucking.

He reached for her. She threw herself against him, kissing him wildly for too brief a time. She wrenched herself away from him.

“Joseph Screaming Eagle should be on his way here and we need Ennis to come to the ranch.”

“I don’t under—”

“Call him, Buck. Now.” She waved her arm in such an agitated manner that he could do nothing but listen to her. Something was definitely in the works here, and the fact that she’d called Ryder in on it stung.

He pulled out his cell and dialed his asshole cousin.

“Be nice,” Channing whispered as if seeing his irritation.

He snorted. “You’re telling me everything after— Ennis, it’s Buck. We have some news you need to hear.” He listened to his cousin’s asshole reply and grunted. “See you then.”

Stabbing the off button on his phone, he tossed it onto the dresser and riveted his attention on the pretty little cowgirl in front of him.

She held up both hands to ward him off. But the way she’d kissed him, no way was she through with him. He took a step toward her. She backed up. “We can’t, Buck. When we get in this bed, I won’t want to get out of it. There’s no time.”

Happiness ripped through him. Was it too soon to hope that the season finale wedding would be legitimate in all senses of the word? He issued a slow breath to calm himself.

“Tell me what’s going on.”

“Joseph Screaming Eagle—”

He shook his head. “Not that. I want to know what you decided about us.”

Her eyes were shiny with love and tears. His heart felt as if it had been trampled by a bull.

“I love you, Buck. I always have and always will. Our problems seem to have been worked out and…”

“And you’ll marry me? For real, no pretenses?”

She nodded.

“Thank God.” He was with her in a step, wrapping her in his arms and kissing her. Drawing on her lips and tongue until his cock bulged, and he was inches away from a bed and sealing the deal—

The barking of cattle dogs pulled a moan from him. Channing recovered faster, bounding out of his arms. She whipped open the door and disappeared through it before he could blink. When he walked out, Brant was there shoving a camera in his face.

“Dammit, we can’t get any privacy, can we? I suppose you’ll be standing over our bed while we make our first child.” He strode past, ignoring the man’s grin.

Outside, everyone was gathering around Ryder’s close friend Joseph Screaming Eagle. The Cherokee man greeted them all with hugs for the women and handshakes for the guys. When Channing pulled him aside and handed him some official-looking papers, Buck wished to hell he knew what was going on.

He pulled Channing close to ask but the dogs started barking again.

She wasn’t kidding there wasn’t time.

Buck folded his arms and waited for the scene to unfold before him. After getting his woman back in his arms and agreeing to walk through life with him, the ranch problem seemed small. Sure, he didn’t want to lose it but letting go of the land would be a hell of a lot easier.

She leaned into his side and he put his arm around her, feeling her quiver with excitement.

* * * * *

Channing wished like crazy that she’d been able to fill in Buck about their plan but having his element of surprise would work in their favor.

When Ennis got out of the truck and walked toward the group with all the arrogance in the world, she didn’t feel even a little bit bad about what was about to go down.

“Ennis, this is Joseph Screaming Eagle from the Creek Nation,” Ryder introduced.

Buck was tense, watching the display like a wolf about to pounce on a rabbit. Channing took his hand, and he glanced down at her with a new warmth in his gaze before snapping his attention to the others.

Ennis had Calhoun manners in spades, and he shook hands with Joseph as if they were long-lost buddies. “Pleasure.”

“Joseph has some information for you about this land that’s been willed to you,” Ryder said.

Ennis arched a brow. “Yeah? What’s that?”

Joseph played the part beautifully. With his natural poker face, he unfolded the papers Channing had just handed to him. “These are documents showing an ancient Cherokee burial ground on this land.”

Ennis stared at the first page and quickly flipped it aside to the second, an actual map of the Calhouns’ ranch, which Channing’s friend had photocopied from the courthouse records.

“It seems the abstractor never went back far enough to see this document verifying the land can never be drilled for oil, mined or disturbed in any way.” Joseph’s dead-pan acting gave Channing a thrill. If she didn’t know better, she’d believe every word he was saying.

“What the hell are you trying to pull over on me?” Ennis drawled. He folded the papers and slapped them back into Joseph’s hand.

At her side, Buck was a live wire, tension rolling off him in waves.

“The land’s worthless to you in this state, Ennis. And that means it’s worthless to everybody else except for raising cattle,” Ryder said.

Wynonna bounced a little on her toes. She managed to staunch her enthusiasm but not before throwing Channing a private victory grin.

“My offer stands. Take it or leave it,” Ennis said in a hard tone.

“You’ll never get anybody to buy at that price, Ennis. You’re screwed. The land isn’t worth what you once thought. It would take you twenty years to find someone stupid enough to buy this place at that price,” Buck said.

His voice was a warm balm over Channing’s flayed nerves. She couldn’t wait to get back into his arms and tell him everything, including how much she loved him.

Ennis sputtered indignantly.

Feeling they weren’t out of the woods yet, Channing stepped forward. She took Ennis by the arm and pulled him aside. Trying to un-hear Buck’s growl of disapproval, she walked a few steps away with Ennis.

The man had always liked her too much, and she’d use that to her advantage to make him listen.

“It seems your house of cards has fallen, Ennis. You won’t get what you’re asking for this land, so I think you should go back to the original price you set before you got even greedier. You don’t really want this land anyway.”

He narrowed his eyes. From the corner of hers, she saw one of the brothers restrain Buck from breaking up whatever was happening between her and Ennis.

She leaned close to their cousin. He was handsome and actually smelled good, but looks were very deceiving when it came to this man. He was nothing like a Calhoun. “After a bit of digging, it seems there’s also some information about your misfiled taxes for the past decade too.”

His eyes flared wide.

She went on tiptoe to whisper into his ear. “I’d give them the best deal, Ennis. It will only take me one moment to turn and look into the camera and tell the nation that you owe hundreds of thousands to the IRS and that you’ve been falsifying a lot of information about your holdings.”