Buch lesen: «Billionaire's Baby Bind»

One

Amberley Holbrook wasn’t too keen on meeting new people; she preferred the company of her horses and keeping an eye on the stables where she worked. Normally her boss, Clay Everett of the Flying E, was happy to let her do what she wanted. But they had a guest on the property who had told Clay that he liked to ride. So as a courtesy Clay had suggested she stop by and introduce herself and offer to take the guest for a ride.

This held little appeal for Amberley. First of all, the dude was from Seattle, and the last time she checked there weren’t any real cowboys from there, so that meant he was some kind of city slicker. Second...she and city slickers didn’t get along. She would be the first to admit that was all down to her and her lousy attitude, which was something her father had advised her to keep in check if she wanted to keep this job.

Third...well, there wasn’t any third. Digging in her heels and refusing to do as Clay had asked certainly wasn’t an option. Amberley had packed more into her twenty-four years than most of her peers. She knew she needed to keep her job because she loved the horses she took care of and she certainly didn’t want to go back to her family’s ranch in Tyler, Texas.

That was something her daddy had been sure to remind her of when she’d called him earlier and told him about Clay’s guest. She and her father were close. Her mom had died when Amberley was thirteen and she’d had four younger siblings to watch over. She and her dad had worked as a team to make sure everything on the ranch got done and her younger siblings, ranging in ages from four to ten, were taken care of. Sometimes her dad would say he cheated her out of a childhood, but Amberley never felt that way. She had her horse, Montgomery, and her family, and until she’d turned eighteen, that was all that had mattered.

Amberley understood why she was nervous about this new guest. The city guy had rented a danged Ford Mustang to drive around in this rugged Texas landscape. She could see the sports car parked next to the guest house that Clay had assigned him.

The Flying E was a sprawling ranch built in the heyday of Clay Everett’s Professional Bull Riding career. He’d been at the top of his game until a bull named Iron Heart had thrown him. Clay had had a few ups and downs, but landed back on his feet and started a new career as CEO of Everest, a company that provided ironclad cloud infrastructure to companies. Amberley was the first to admit she had no idea what that really was, but it made Clay a nice fortune and enabled him to employ her as his full-time horse master.

She took care of the stables on the Flying E, provided lessons to locals from Royal and the surrounding county and made sure any guest of the Everetts had access to horses. The ranch itself was sprawling, with a large mansion for the main house and several smaller guest houses. Amberley lived in a cottage that suited her to a T. She’d always wanted her own place and lots of ranch land, something that was beyond the budget of a simple barrel racer like herself. So living on the Flying E and working for Clay gave her the best of both worlds.

She took another look at the sports car.

City guy.

As a teen, she’d watched shows like Gossip Girl and longed to be in Manhattan, though she’d have stuck out like...well, a sore thumb, but she had liked the fantasy of it.

So perhaps it wasn’t quite so surprising that this man was making her curious before she’d even met him.

“Are you going to knock or just stand here all day?” Cara asked as she stood in front of the guest cabin that had been assigned to Will. The cabin itself was really a sprawling three-bedroom cottage that was all natural wood and glass.

Cara was seventeen and also worked on the ranch with Amberley, as her apprentice. She’d brought the teenager with her to meet Clay’s new guest to be sure Amberley didn’t do anything...well, stupid.

“Yeah. I was just waiting for the music to die down a little.”

“I don’t think it’s going to,” Cara said. “I thought he had a baby. You’d think the old dude would put on some headphones.”

“You think he’s old?”

Cara raised both eyebrows at Amberley. “Most def. He’s got a kid, right? So, I’m guessing he must be old—”

“Geez, kid, back in my day we had to boot up a big old DOS machine and wait half a day for our computers to start working.”

The voice was deep and rich, like the faux bass line in White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army,” and Amberley felt a blush starting at her chest and working up over her cheeks as she turned to look at him. Their eyes met. His were forest green and made her think of the meadow she rode past each morning on her dawn ride on Montgomery.

There was a sardonic note in his voice that she totally got.

He wasn’t old.

He wasn’t old at all.

He wore a faded MIT T-shirt that clung to his shoulders and lean stomach. He had on a pair of faded jeans that hung low on his hips, and as she glanced down at his feet she noticed he had on Converse sneakers.

He was exactly what she’d been fearing and, if she was honest, secretly hoping he would be.

“You don’t look too bad for your age,” Amberley said. “I’m Amberley Holbrook, horse master, and this is my apprentice, Cara. Clay asked me to introduce myself and let you know that the stables are available for your use.”

“Thanks,” he said, holding out his hand to Cara. “Will Brady. Ancient one.”

“Geez, dude, I’m sorry. I was just being mouthy. My mom has been warning me about that forever,” Cara said.

“It’s all right. I probably do seem ancient to a high schooler.”

Cara shook his hand. Amberley wiped her hands on the sides of her jeans and took a deep breath and then their hands met. His skin wasn’t dry and rough, the way so many of the hands of the men on the ranch were. They were soft, and as she looked down she noticed that his nails were neat and intact, not split from accidentally smashing one with a hammer.

She rubbed her thumb over his knuckles and then realized what she was doing and dropped his hand.

“Anyway... Come over to the stables anytime. I’ll have to observe you riding before I can clear you to ride alone.”

“No problem. I’ll probably stop by this afternoon,” he said. “I have a conference call with the sheriff this morning.”

“Is this about Maverick?” Cara asked. “I heard you were in town to stop him.”

Will shrugged and gave her a self-deprecating smile. “Just going to see what I can find on the internet to track that SOB down.”

“I know we will all be glad for that,” Amberley said. “I’m pretty much always at the stables, so stop by anytime.”

Cara arched one eyebrow at Amberley but kept her mouth shut, and they turned and walked back toward the stables. She tried to tell herself that he was just a guy...but she knew that he was so much more than that.

* * *

Amberley wasn’t the kind of woman who had time for gossip or staring at hot guys. Yet she’d found herself riding by his place for the last two mornings hoping for a glimpse of him. Instead she’d had a conversation with Erin Sinclair, Will’s nanny, and she’d even cuddled his cute daughter, eleven-month-old Faye.

Will had called down to the stables earlier to say he was going to come by for a ride, but he wasn’t sure when the computer program he’d been running would be done. So it could be anytime between now and sunset. She was trying to focus on the work she had to do. There were horses to tame to the saddle, and she liked it that way. She’d always preferred animals over people. They were easy to predict, she thought. She’d grown up in a very large family, and the thought of having her own, well... She liked kids and men, but having to take care of her own brood made her break out in hives.

“You have to admit he’s hot,” Cara said. “Not old at all.”

“He’s a city slicker who probably can’t tell a horse from steer. Who has time for that?” Amberley asked.

She and Cara were both grooming horses for the newcomers so they’d be able to take a ride around Clay Everett’s ranch and get the lay of the land. When Cara had asked Amberley if she could help her out at the ranch, her gut instinct had been to say no. After all, what exactly did she have to teach the high school girl, but Cara had been insistent and one thing had led to another, and now she was in the barn grooming horses with a chatty seventeen-year-old.

“I’m just saying if a guy like that looked at me—”

“Your boyfriend would be jealous,” Amberley said. Cara was dating one of the varsity football players.

“Yeah, he would be. For now. Next year he’ll be gone and I’ll be... I don’t know where I’ll be. Did you ever wish you’d gone to college?” Cara asked.

Amberley thought about it. At seventeen she’d wanted to get as far away from Texas, her siblings and the ranching life as she could. She’d wanted a chance to be on her own. But her family hadn’t had the money for college and, to be honest, Amberley had only been an okay student. No one had been offering her any money for school and this job with Clay had come along at the right time. She’d met his foreman when she’d been rodeoing during her early teens and he’d offered the job.

It hadn’t been her dream, but it had meant she’d be out of her dad’s house and away from the siblings she’d had to babysit, and that had seemed like a dream.

At times, it was easy to forget she’d once wanted something else from life. She wasn’t a whiner and didn’t have time to listen to herself think of things that might have been. It was what it was.

“Not really. I have my horses and Clay pretty much lets me have the freedom to run the barn the way I want to. What more could a gal ask for?” Amberley said, hoping that some of her ennui wasn’t obvious to Cara.

“I hope I feel like that someday.”

“You will. You’re seventeen, you’re not supposed to have it all figured out,” she said.

“I hope so,” Cara said. Her phone pinged.

“Go on and chat with your friends. I can finish up the other horse. You know he mentioned he didn’t know when he’d be down here.”

“Here I am,” a masculine voice said. “I hope I’m not interrupting.”

Amberley felt the heat on her face and knew she was blushing. She could blame it on her redhead complexion, but she knew it was embarrassment. She could only be glad he hadn’t arrived any earlier.

“Not disappointed at all,” she said, reaching for her straw cowboy hat before stepping out of the stall and into the main aisle of the barn.

She’d sort of hoped that he wouldn’t be as good-looking as she remembered. But that wasn’t the case. In fact, his thick blond-brown hair looked even thicker today and his jaw was strong and clean-shaven. His green eyes were intense and she couldn’t look away from him.

She told herself her interest in him was just because he was so different than the other men around the ranch.

If he had a pair of Wrangler jeans and some worn ranch boots she wouldn’t be interested in him at all. But the fact that he had a Pearl Jam T-shirt on and a pair of faded jeans that clung to all the right spots was the only reason she was even vaguely attracted to him.

She noticed his mouth was moving and she thought she wouldn’t mind it moving against hers. But then she realized he was speaking when Cara, who’d come out of her stall as well, looked at her oddly.

“Sorry about that. What did you say?”

“I was just saying that I’m sorry if just showing up messed up your schedule. I do appreciate you being available on my timetable,” he said. “If you need more time to get ready I can wait over there.”

She shook her head. He was being so reasonable. But she just had a bee in her bonnet when it came to this guy. Well, to all men who came from the city. She wished he wasn’t so darn appealing. That maybe his voice would be soft or odd, but of course, he didn’t have some silly city voice. Instead, his words were like a deep timbre brushing over her ears and her senses like a warm breeze on a summer’s day. Since it was Texas, October wasn’t too cool, but it was fall and she missed summer.

But with him... Dammit. She had to stop this.

“I’m ready. Cara, will you show Mr. Brady to his horse?” she asked her apprentice, who was watching her with one of those smirks only a teenager could manage.

“Sure thing, Ms. Holbrook,” Cara said sarcastically.

“You can call me Will,” he told Cara.

“Ms. Holbrook, can Will call you Amberley?”

That girl. She was pushing Amberley because she knew she could. “Of course.”

“Thanks, Amberley,” he said.

She told herself that there was nothing special about the way he said her name, but it sent shivers—the good kind—down her spine. She had to nip this attraction in the bud. Will was going to be here for a while helping Max St. Cloud investigate the cyberbully and blackmailer Maverick, who’d been wreaking havoc on the local residents, particularly the members of the Texas Cattleman’s Club, releasing videos and other damning stories on the internet. Will was the CTO of the company, so he was more of a partner to Max than an employee, and rumor had it they were old friends.

“No prob,” she said. “How’d you end up here in Royal?” Amberley asked Will while Cara went to get his horse.

“Chelsea Hunt and Max go way back. So she asked for our help to try to find the identity of Maverick.”

Maverick had been doing his best to make life hell for the members of the Texas Cattleman’s Club. He’d been revealing secrets gleaned from hacking into smartphones and other internet connected devices. He’d made things uncomfortable for everyone in Royal.

“I like Chelsea. She’s smart as a whip,” Amberley said. And she seemed to really have her stuff together. No shrinking violet, Chelsea was one of the women that Amberley looked up to in Royal. She lived her life on her own terms, and Amberley was pretty sure that if Chelsea liked a guy she didn’t have to come up with reasons to avoid him...the way that Amberley herself had been doing.

Cara came back with Will’s mount and Amberley went back into the stall and saw her faithful horse, Montgomery, waiting for her. She went to the animal and rested her forehead against the horse’s neck. Montgomery curved her head around Amberley’s and she felt a little bit better. She had always been better with horses than people.

And normally that wouldn’t bother her. But it would be nice not to screw up around men as much as she just had with Will. She didn’t enjoy feeling like an awkward country bumpkin.

* * *

Will hadn’t expected to feel so out of place in Texas. He’d been to Dallas before and thought that the stereotype of boots, cowboy hats and horses was something from the past or in the imagination of television producers. But being here on the Flying E had shown him otherwise.

Amberley was cute and a distraction. Something—hell, someone—to take his mind off Seattle and all that he’d left behind there. All that he’d lost. To be honest, coming out here might have been what he needed. His baby girl was sleeping with her nanny watching over her, and he was someplace new.

Max hadn’t batted an eye when Will had told him he needed to bring his daughter and her nanny along with him to Royal. His friend had known that Will was a dedicated single dad.

He had work to do, of course, but he’d ridden a long time ago and thought getting back on a horse might be the first step to moving on. From his wife’s death.

It was funny, but after Lucy’s death everyone had been comforting and left him to process his grief. But now that so many months had gone by and he was still in the same routine, they were starting to talk, and his mom and Lucy’s mom weren’t as subtle as they both liked to think they were, with their encouragement to “live again” and reminders that he still had a long life ahead of him.

Lucy had had a brain hemorrhage a few weeks before she was due. The doctors had kept her alive until she gave birth to Faye. Then they took her off the machines that had been keeping her alive and she’d faded away. He’d asked them to wait a week after Faye’s birth because he hadn’t wanted his daughter’s birthday to also be the day she’d lost her mom.

“You okay?”

“Yeah. Sorry. Just distracted,” he said.

“It happens,” she said. She spoke with a distinctive Texan drawl. It was so different from Lucy’s Northwestern accent that he... Hell, he needed to stop thinking about her. He was getting away for a while, helping out a friend and having a ride to clear his head. He knew he should let that be enough.

“It does. Sorry, I’m really bad company right now. I thought...”

“Hey. You don’t have to entertain me. Whenever I’m in a bad place mentally—not saying you are—but when I am, I love to get out of the barn, take Montgomery here for a run. There’s no time to think about anything except the terrain and my horse—it clears away the cobwebs in my mind.”

He had just noticed how pretty her lips were. A shell-pink color. And when she smiled at him her entire face seemed to light up. “Just what I need. Let’s do this.”

“Well, before we get started I need to know what your horsemanship level is,” she said. “We’ll pick our route based on that.”

“Summer camp and college polo team,” he said. “I stopped playing about three years ago. I’m a pretty decent rider and keep a horse at a stable near my home. But haven’t been riding much since my daughter was born.”

“Sounds like you might be a bit rusty but you’ve got some skills,” she said. “I’ll start ya out easy and see how it goes.”

“I’m yours to command,” he said.

“Mine to command? Not sure I’ve ever had anything with two legs under my command.”

He threw his head back and laughed. She was funny, this one. He wasn’t sure if she’d meant that to be a come-on, but there was something sort of innocent about her so he guessed not. She was very different from Lucy, his late wife. That twinge he always experienced at the thought of her colored the moment.

“Let’s start with a ride,” he said.

She nodded. “There’s a mounting block over there if you need a leg up. I’ll let you go first.”

“Thanks,” he said, leading his horse to the block and mounting easily. He shifted around in the saddle until he was comfortable. The horse she had him on was easily controlled and led and seemed comfortable with him as a rider.

“So why are you here?” she asked as she mounted her own horse.

He told himself to look away but didn’t. Her jeans hugged the curve of her butt and as she climbed on the horse there was something very natural about how she moved. As she put both feet in the stirrups and sat up, he realized she looked more at home on horseback than she had talking to him.

“Ah, I’m here to investigate all the trouble that Maverick is causing. I’m really good at tracking someone’s cyber footprint.”

She shook her head and then gently brushed her heels against her horse and made a clicking sound. “I don’t even know what a cyber footprint is.”

He laughed a little at her comment. “Most people don’t think about it, but with smartphones and social media apps, we all are leaving a trail that can be followed.”

“That makes sense,” she said. “You ready for a run or do you just want to take it slow and steady?” she asked as they left the barn area and reached the open plains.

The land stretched out as far as he could see. It was October, so in Seattle it was rainy and growing colder, but the sun was shining down on them today in Texas and the weather was warm. He lifted his face to the sun, taking a deep breath. It was a good day to be alive.

As the thought crossed his mind, he remembered Lucy again and shook his head. He wasn’t going to cry for the wife he’d lost or the family that had been broken. Not now and not in front of this strong, sunny cowgirl.

“Run,” he said.

“Just the answer I was hoping for. Follow me. I’m going to start slow and then build. This part of the ranch is safe enough for a run.”

She took off and he sat there for a moment stuck in the past until she glanced over her shoulder, her long braid flying out to the side, and smiled at him.

“You coming?”

This ride was just the thing he needed to draw him out of the gloom of the past.

“Hell, yes.”

* * *

Riding had always been Amberley’s escape. But with Will riding by her side, she felt more fenced-in than free. Clay had asked everyone at the Flying E to make Will feel welcome and she tried to tell herself that was all she was doing now. He was just another guest, a city boy, at that. He was here temporarily. She didn’t like to think about her past or about the guy she’d fallen too hard and too quickly for. But there was something about Will that brought that all up.

Mostly, she realized it was superficial. They were both outsiders to her way of life. But where Sam Pascal had been looking for some sort of Western fantasy, it seemed to her that Will was looking...well, for a cyberbully but also for some sort of escape. There was a sadness that lingered in his eyes and when he thought no one was looking she could see that he was battling with his own demons.

Something she battled herself.

She heard him thundering along behind her and glanced over her shoulder. He sat in the saddle well and moved like he’d been born to ride. It was hard to keep him shoved in the city-slicker box when she saw him on horseback. She turned to face the field in front of them, taking a moment just to be glad for this sunny October day.

It was good to be alive.

The air had the nip of fall to it and the sky was so big it seemed to stretch forever. She slowed her horse and waited for Will to catch up to her.

He did in a moment and she glanced over to see a big smile on his face.

“I needed this.”