At the Rancher's Bidding by Charlotte Maclay

Author:Charlotte Maclay
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

An hour later, Allie sat primly on her side of the truck, her hands folded neatly in her lap, intangible waves of anger and frustration washing over her from Cord’s side of the pickup. Dirt and sweat streaked his face. There was a rip in his shirt, and his jeans were covered in mud.

She exhaled. So much for her plan to get him to kiss her again.

“I am sorry your bull escaped the trailer, but I was concerned about a sick child. The cowboy said—”

“We would have all been better off if you’d been concerned about the fact you don’t know how to drive five-on-the-floor.” To emphasize the point, he shifted down to accelerate around a slow-moving car.

“It doesn’t look that hard.” She pouted, thinking he didn’t have to be quite so angry with her. Her intentions had been good. They always were, which was why it was so discouraging that more times than not her best efforts got her into trouble.

“The fact is, Mischief, you don’t think before you do anything. You just act. You could have gotten someone killed, or at least seriously injured.”

“No one suffered injury,” she protested. If she excluded his scraped shoulder, which she probably shouldn’t.

“Maybe not, but your little stunt cost me a few hundred bucks I hadn’t planned to spend. That bull back there in the trailer did a helluva lot of damage to a few fenders after we had him cornered.”

“I’ll pay you back.”

“Right. I’ll take it out of your wages.”

She had momentarily forgotten Cord didn’t know she was wealthy in her own right. “Fine. I agree to your terms. I do not wish to be in debt to you.”

“Great. And don’t forget to add in the prize bull I just bought is so worn out, he won’t be able to mount a cow for months.”

“Then you bought the wrong bull. Any male worth his salt could recover from a vigorous workout more quickly than that.”

His lips quivered with the hint of a grin. “Mischief, what am I going to do with you? One minute I want to throttle you and the next I…” Shaking his head, he left the thought unsaid.

“Yes? What is it you might wish to do with me?”

To her disappointment, he waved off her question. “For now, let’s just concentrate on getting us and the bull home in one piece.”

AT THE DESERT ROSE, Cade loaded his three-month-old twins into their car seats in the back of his extended-cab pickup, then helped his wife into the passenger seat.

“Tell me again why you want us to visit Cord’s ranch?” Rena asked.

“For one thing, you’ve barely been out of the house in the past three months. I figured a little outing wouldn’t hurt you or the babies.”

“That’s true enough, but that surely is not the only reason we are going to visit Cord.”

“Well, no.” His wife was too perceptive by far, he thought as he went around to the driver’s side. “Cord’s got this new housekeeper, one of Princess Aliah Bahram’s ladies-in-waiting.

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