He walked back, set the beer down. She wasn’t surprised when he pulled her out of the chair.
She wondered if she surprised him by gripping his hair in both fists and assaulting his mouth with hers.
Hankering be damned, she thought. This was hunger, deep, grinding hunger, and the perpetual ache of it had kept her entire system on edge from the moment she’d walked into the kitchen months back to see him charming Clementine.
It didn’t have to make sense, it didn’t have to be smart. It just had to be.
She blew through him, a perfect storm of lust and power, lightning strikes that flashed and burned, leaving erotic afterimages of tangled, frantic bodies. And she took, beyond what his frustration and impulse had prepared for. Stirred up the currents, threatened the flood, and all with only a single, urgent kiss.
Though he cursed her, himself, the altogether sticky situation, he backed off. Now she grabbed his shirt front, and the molten look in her eyes told him clearly she wasn’t done.
Me, either, he thought, but carefully, eyes level with hers, pried open her grip.
She dropped her hand quickly, and he couldn’t quite read the mix on her face now. Shock, insult, disappointment seemed to come and go.
“You—” She broke off, took a long breath. Now he read disdain, and plenty of haughty with it. “You can’t possibly believe I’d use sex to persuade you to stay on as horse manager.”
“You know, Bodine, as good a rider as you are, you’re going to bust your ass falling off a horse that high. Now just—” He held a hand up, palm out, to signal her back. And took a step back himself.
Her eyes narrowed for a moment, then lit up. Oh so sly, he noted. Her lips curved.
“That’s right.” He couldn’t say why that sheer smugness on her face made him want her more. “I’ve got my limits, and right now I’ve got one foot over the edge of them. So we’re just gonna—” He broke off again, waving her back. “Keep our separate spaces for right now.”
“You’re the one who started it.”
“Maybe, and maybe I didn’t factor in … certain eventualities. I need to think all this over, and while I’m thinking all this over, I need to talk to Chase, as he’s the one who hired me on.”
“All right. And will your talk with Chase include those certain eventualities?”
Talk about sticky situations. But a man didn’t bullshit his best friend. “Most likely.”
“Well, that would be up to you. But I’ll remind you—and him, if it comes to it—I don’t need his permission regarding who I take to bed.”
Another time, he’d have valued the frankness, but at the moment it only made the thin ledge he balanced on all the shakier.
“It’s not about permission. Now I need you to…” He gestured toward the door. When she angled her head, lifted her eyebrows, he shoved his hands in his pockets. Hands that really wanted to take hold of her and wipe that smug satisfaction off her face. “Go on, Bo, out, before both my feet are over that edge.”
“All right. I’d appreciate it if you let me know about the job in the next couple of days.” She opened the door, then stood with the cold swirling in around her and awash in the yard lights that added mystery.
“I’m going to tell you: Whether or not you take the job, I’m going to have you. I’ve made up my mind about it.”
The damn ledge started to crumble under his feet. “Keep walking, Bodine.”
She left him with a laugh he already knew would keep him up half the night. He sat, picked up his beer. He wasn’t sure if he felt like a righteous man or a fool.
At the moment he didn’t see much daylight between the two.
*
Stringing out a yes or no struck Callen as cowardly, and since the yes or no would depend, for him, on what Chase had to say, he’d hit that straight on.
Before sunrise, he found Chase, along with a couple of hands, moving horses from stall to paddock. “Morning, Cal.” Chase gave the sorrel gelding an easy slap on the flank to send him through the open gate. “Getting your rotation up, but I’m holding Beans back today. Looks like an infection in his right eye, so I want the vet to take a look. You all right with Cochise instead?”
“Sure. Have you got a minute?”
“Got a couple of them,” Sensing Callen wanted more privacy, Chase walked away from the horse paddock. “We’re castrating calves today.”
“Can’t say I mind missing it.”
When Chase figured they’d gone far enough from perked-up ears, he stopped. “Supposed to climb up to the forties today. At least the rest of us won’t freeze our balls off while we turn little bulls into steers.”
“I could use a shirtsleeves day.”
“Wouldn’t hurt my feelings. I heard Abe might not be coming back.”
“Bodine said that’s definite.” Callen’s breath whooshed out in a cloud. “I’d say a heart attack—and a minor one’s not minor to the one having it—is a wake-up call. I guess it shouldn’t surprise anyone they decided to retire.”
“They’ll be missed. Both’ve been with the resort since before it was one. I’m not going to be surprised if Bodine offered you Abe’s job permanent.”
“She did.”
“Are you taking it?”
“I’m not saying yes or no until I hear what you have to say.”
“It’s not up to me, Cal.”
“Oh, horse shit. Where did I go when I knew it was time to come back?” Callen demanded. “You took me on, even fixed up the shack.”
Accustomed to the flare, Chase met it as he usually did. With equanimity.
“I’d’ve done that out of friendship, all of us would’ve. But we didn’t need to. You’re an asset, Cal, the best all-around horseman I know, and that includes my own father. He’d say the same. We all know you could’ve gone anywhere.”
“I didn’t want to go just anywhere. I’ve been there.”
“So here you are.” Sensing dawn was close, Chase looked up at the sky, watched a few stars gutter out. “I might fight Bo for you, might even win, though God knows she’s a fierce and dirty fighter. Remember that time we had to haul her off Bud Panger? Bud had a year on her, ten pounds, too, easy, and she had him down in the dirt crying for his ma.”
“I remember. She caught me one on the shin while we were hauling her off Bud. I limped for two days. I’m not going to be a cause of upset between you and Bo.”
“You wouldn’t be. I might fight her, but the resort’s part of the whole, so it’s all, well, of a piece, isn’t it? Besides all that, it’s what you want here, Cal. As dirty as Bo can fight, she’d say just the same. And I expect she has.”
“I came here to work for you, Chase.”
“You came to work for the Bodine Ranch, and the resort’s part of it.”
The long night shifted toward day, a lessening of dark, a slight rise of wind. Horses whickering, the low of cattle, the boot steps of men already about the day’s work.