Rancher On the Line Page 8

  “The carpet is nice,” she said. She wouldn’t be able to stand upright in the treehouse. Sitting was comfortable enough to get through a few hours.

  “Someone is keeping the place up. I imagine local kids still come here. It’s summer and they’ll be out of school, so this will only be good for tonight.”

  Under different circumstances, spending the whole night in a treehouse with Dane would cause her pulse to rise. As of now, she couldn’t afford the distraction.

  Dane reached for the small chest. He opened it and found a couple of sticks that had one end whittled down to form a sharp point, and, therefore, a weapon. Nice. There was a small Swiss Army knife that looked like it had been left out in the rain for a month, the blades rusty. It might come in handy. He pulled a few twenties out of his wallet and dropped them in the chest before returning it to its original position.

  Glancing over at Catalina, he noticed she was shifting side-to-side on her bottom, no doubt trying to get comfortable. Even under these circumstances, her creamy skin glowed. Shadows played across her face, highlighting those cornflower blue eyes. There wasn’t a man alive who wouldn’t be attracted to her beauty, or so he tried to tell himself. Was he trying to ease the guilt of his attraction?

  The short answer was yes. When she’d stood toe-to-toe with him in the kitchen earlier, he’d nearly lost his tightly gripped control. Dane shoved the thought aside. The situation had been avoided. No damage had been done. Because all he’d wanted to do in that moment was haul her against his chest and claim those pink lips of hers.

  Granted, she’d kissed him. It had been nothing more than a peck. Again, nothing had happened that couldn’t be recovered from. The last thing Dane wanted Catalina to feel after spending time with him was regret.

  So, he bagged his attraction toward her and moved on. Too bad her spring rain and flowery scent filled his senses in the cramped space, reminding him how good she smelled and how much his fingers longed to touch her creamy skin.

  Great job bagging the attraction, Firebrand.

  He watched as she tried to prop herself up against the wall and wrangle her laptop out of its special pocket in her backpack. She got set up and then straightened her back. She slumped forward and then straightened up again, clearly struggling to get comfortable.

  Dane grabbed his rucksack and crawled over, placing it behind her back. This close, her spring flower scent filled his senses, making rational thought next to impossible. The air between them charged with electrical current that he could tell she felt based on the look of hunger in her eyes—hunger he couldn’t afford to see. Hunger that had him reaching a hand up to run his fingers along her jawline, and then down her neck.

  She swallowed like her throat had suddenly dried up.

  “Dane.” The sound of his name rolling off her tongue corded his already taut muscles.

  “Yeah?” was all he could manage to say in response. His attempt at coming off as causal fell flat.

  “Can I ask you a favor?” Her voice slid over him and through him, clouding his already foggy judgment.

  He couldn’t remember the last time a woman’s voice had this effect on him.

  “Go ahead.” Their faces were mere inches apart. Too close for Dane to be able to think clearly. He searched her gaze for a sign he should back away. Saw none. In fact, the more he looked into her eyes, the more he saw the signal to go ahead. But to do what?

  “Kiss me,” she said, her words breathed out softly, answering the question on his mind.

  Dane refused to overthink this. Her request was simple. A kiss. She was in a life and death situation and her biology was telling her to grab hold of the closest person and affirm life.

  There wasn’t more to it than that. Whatever chemistry was happening between them wasn’t special, he tried to convince himself. And it worked. Right up until he closed the distance between them and pressed his lips to hers.

  Her hands came up to his shoulders. Her fingernails dug into his skin through his t-shirt. Her lips moved against his, inviting him to take more.

  She moaned against his mouth, parted her lips, and teased his tongue inside. She tasted like peppermint. Dane deepened the kiss, bringing his hand up to cup her face to position her for better access.

  The next thing he knew, she’d shoved him backward until he sat on his backside. Her laptop was off her lap and she’d climbed onto his. There was so much fire and sizzle, and hunger in their kisses, Dane could see himself losing control with her.

  A fleeting thought he needed to rein in what was happening between them was quickly dismissed. Denim was the only barrier between him and the apex of her thighs.

  Dane tugged at her bottom lip, and she bit down on his. Every tongue stroke was matched until they were both gasping for air. Need was a physical force. She brought her hands up, tunneling her fingers in his hair as their tongues teased, teeth nipped until all he could think was…more.

  He dropped his hands to her thighs, gripping them and squeezing as she rocked against him. He’d never felt so much need spring up so quickly in his entire life.

  And then he opened his eyes. She opened hers. An unspoken moment happened between them—a moment that said another time, another place, and there’d be no stopping their sexual attraction. The current running from her and through him was the strongest he’d ever experienced. What was it about forbidden fruit that made it taste so much better? And this was most definitely off limits. Time was a luxury they didn’t have, so he issued a sharp sigh and did his level best to collect himself.

  Catalina tucked her hair behind her ears and leaned back, creating enough distance in between them for Dane to regain more control. For a few minutes there, he’d just gone with what he was feeling. It was foreign to him to allow instinct to take over. The sex he’d had in the past was incredible, but he realized making love to Catalina would be in a whole new stratosphere. He’d never taken someone to bed that he wouldn’t be able to get out of his mind.

  He’d just broken one of his cardinal rules.

  “This should help with bugs.” Dane grabbed a couple of bug repellent wipe packets out of the side pocket of his bag. He handed one to Catalina before reclaiming his seat on the opposite side of the treehouse, balancing out the weight.

  “I should have known you’d be prepared for anything,” she said before adding, “thank you.”

  “It’s a good idea to keep your monitor brightness as low as possible,” he said with a nod. He was preaching to the choir with his remark but hopefully she realized he was trying to be helpful. He checked his cell phone. “I don’t have any bars out here. Doesn’t surprise me, just thought you should be aware.”

  “I can’t even create a hotspot since there’s no service out here. Plus, I doubt this disposable phone is capable anyway.” She slicked her tongue across her bottom lip, and he forced himself to look away. Those few moments when they’d given need the reins had put them at their most vulnerable. As much as he believed it was safe up here in the treehouse, he couldn’t afford to let his guard down like that again. And neither could she.

  10

  Catalina stretched her arms out and rolled her head around a couple of times, trying to release some of the tension in her neck. Her battery was getting low and she’d solved one of the bugs in the programming. Progress was slow but she was making some at least.

  She leaned her head against the wall and closed her eyes. Big mistake. Her thoughts drifted back to the scorching hot kiss. Every time.

  “I have power bars if you’re hungry,” Dane’s voice had a habit of moving over her and through her, stirring places she didn’t need to think about while on a deadline and trying to stay one step ahead of jerks who wanted to erase her.

  “I’ll take you up on that,” she said, yawning. She wasn’t tired so much as tired of sitting in one place. Her bottom hurt and so did her lower back. Dane’s bag helped but couldn’t possibly save her back.

  Dane came over to her side of the space, and then reached beside her and into his bag. His presence right in front of her caused too many competing sensations to flood her. He handed over a bar, palmed one for himself, and then retreated. There was something else in his hand.

  “What’s that?” She opened the bar and polished it off in a matter of seconds. It was almost pure protein, tasted like eating peanut butter from a jar, and was surprisingly filling.

  “This chocolate square is the equivalent of drinking a cup of coffee.” He held one in between his thumb and forefingers.

  “Are you serious? Because I’d kill for both right now.” She heard the word roll off her tongue casually and caught herself. Strange how that and other words were taking on a new meaning now that she was on the run and fighting for her own life. Kal Sutton would be willing to protect his secret in any and every way. He would silence her in a heartbeat. The thought made a shiver race down her spine.

  Dane tossed a chocolate square to her. She missed, but it landed on her thigh. She snapped it up, opened it and savored the flavor. It tasted like a mocha, her favorite indulgence. “This chocolate square is amazing.”

  “Agreed,” Dane said, his voice raw and husky. Sexy.

  “In the first few weeks after Luke was born, I needed a reason to get out of the house and interact with people who weren’t one hundred percent dependent on me to live,” she said. “There’s this little coffee shop down the street from my house that I visited on a daily basis. The baristas got to know me so well, they started making my order the minute I walked through the door. This reminds me of my mochas.” She held up the wrapper, and then scooted the lap desk off her legs before crisscrossing them.

  “I can’t imagine how intense it must have been to bring a kid into the world on your own. I doubt I could do it.” Dane
’s admission caught her off guard.

  “You’d be surprised what you can do when life throws a curveball your way,” she said. And then for reasons she couldn’t explain added, “Lucas and my relationship had been over for years when he disappeared. We just didn’t know it yet or were too stubborn to quit.”

  Dane’s eyebrow shot up. Questions danced behind his eyes. To his credit, he didn’t ask.

  “We’d been together since we were kids.” She shrugged. “I loved him deeply, so I hope you won’t take this the wrong way. I hadn’t been in love with him for the past five years, maybe longer.”

  “Then, why string him along?” He seemed to hear how that sounded when he cocked his head to one side. “Why keep the relationship going? Seems like it would just be leading him on.”

  “I planned to marry him,” she defended. “There was no way I was going to back out of the promise we made to each other. The promise I made to him.” She issued a sharp sigh. “He changed. Being overseas changed him. And I didn’t know how to ever get him back. But that didn’t mean I would give up on us.”

  “Ever think it was his job to keep his mental game strong and not yours?” There was no judgment in his tone. He asked the question like he was reading a spreadsheet for her old department’s budget.

  “Under any other circumstances, I probably would. I just felt like these were extenuating. He went into the military because he couldn’t afford to go to college and he wanted to provide a future for us,” she said. “We were eighteen. What did we know?”

  “Young people make mistakes. I can’t imagine planning out my entire future at eighteen years old,” he agreed.

  “And yet you decided to stay with the military for your career,” she said.

  “Years later. It happened by default. My tour would end, and I would re-sign. I went into it thinking I’d do a few years and then get out.” He ripped open the chocolate package before tossing the square in his mouth and chewing on it. “I kept thinking I’d leave when I had a better idea. None ever came and I was good at being a soldier.”

  “The best, according to Lucas,” she admitted.

  Dane shook his head. “There’s always someone out there who will eventually be better than you.”

  He held up his right hand and she could see a tremor.

  “Nerve damage,” he said.

  “How did it happen?” she asked.

  “Got too close to a blast and came home with a present. Nerve damage,” he stated.

  “Medically boarded?” She’d already guessed, so he would only be confirming what she already knew. Still, it seemed important for him to talk about it.

  “That’s right. Now, I’m out and shy of my twenty years,” he said.

  “You don’t need the money.” She put her hands up in the surrender position, palms out. “I know you already said you want to make your own way.”

  “It’s true,” he said. “I also wanted to stick it to my grandfather, and my father if I’m honest. Show them both I didn’t need their money.”

  “Sounds rebellious.” She smiled but picked up on the current of anger in his voice at the mention of his father and grandfather.

  “That’s me,” he teased, rewarding her with a smile that melted the few defenses she’d constructed since the bone-melting kiss.

  “Can I ask what you have against your family? You seem really close with your brother and he dropped everything to help us.” She wandered into dangerous territory based on the way his smile faded and his gaze narrowed.

  “My brother isn’t the problem.” There was a finality to his tone that said he was done talking about it.

  Taking a slow breath, Catalina continued, “You came home to pay your respects. Why?”

  “That conversation is classified and you don’t have the clearance,” his tone dropped a few octaves, a low rumble.

  “He must have meant something to you,” she pressed on.

  “I already missed one funeral for someone I cared about. I had no plans to miss another even if I didn’t have the same feeling.” He put his hand up to stop her from asking another question. “This subject is closed.”

  “Saying goodbye is hard. Believe me. I know firsthand,” she said.

  “At least you loved the person who died.” Dane seemed to hear those words as they came out of his mouth.

  She brought her hand up to cover hers as she looked away. He might not have meant for his comment to come across as cruel, but it had scored a direct hit. She might have loved Lucas in her own way, but her feelings toward him never made her stomach quiver or her breath catch with just one look.

  And she almost said those words out loud. She also realized Dane had finally opened up and talked to her about something important. He’d shut down but this was progress—progress she’d take.

  Dane pulled his legs up toward his chest, resting his elbows on his knees. Talking wasn’t something he was normally great at or enjoyed doing. Between the long conversation with Eric and speaking to Catalina, he figured he’d spoken as many words in the past twenty-four hours as he had in the past year in total.

  Talking to Catalina was odd because he actually liked it. He could talk to her all night and never get bored or tired. The subject of his grandfather was off limits. So was the subject of his relationship with his father. Period.

  He needed to redirect the conversation.

  “Are you telling me you would have married Lucas, and then lived happily ever after? Stayed with him for the rest of your life?” He turned the tables and she sucked in a burst of air. Had he crossed a line? He half expected her to refuse to answer.

  Instead, she took in a slow breath and said, “Lucas never would have abandoned me if something happened that changed me. I can’t answer your question as to whether or not I’d be happy if Lucas and I had been able to get married. Our connection was deep. But I know I never would have been happy if I’d walked away because he came home broken.”

  Her devotion struck Dane harder than a hammer to the ribs. And he knew exactly what that particular brand of pain felt like. The butt of a gun to his head. A shot that grazes his arm. Those, among other things. Things that sometimes changed a person. He’d seen it happen with his team and had sworn not to let it affect him in the same way.

  But then, he never let anyone get close enough to him to notice if he came home different. Besides, it would be impossible to tell from arm’s length, which is where he kept most people. And the fact he’d missed the signs with Lucas was another gut punch.

  There was a pull toward Catalina he couldn’t ignore if he tried. Dane found himself in strange territory because he didn’t want to try to push her away. Still, there were a couple of topics that remained off limits and some secrets left buried.

  “Any chance it’s safe to take a walk?” She interrupted his thoughts.

  He moved around the room, checking in between cracks in the wood. The sun was high in the sky. The breeze was gone. The temperature inside the treehouse was rising.

  Catalina fanned herself with a notebook from her backpack. Her cheeks flushed and it made her even more beautiful if that was possible. He doubted it was. Physically, she had all the features a person would consider perfect. High cheekbones. Perfectly symmetrical features. A true beauty. Those features were icing on the cake. She was smart. Loyal. Kind. And her compassion shone through those cornflower blue eyes of her. So did her stubbornness.

  There was so much more to her than attractive physical features. She had a depth few people would ever know. He’d heard people like her referred to as old souls. They understood pain and suffering. They understood people. And they had empathy beyond comparison.

  They were rare. She was rare. And under different circumstances, he could see himself with someone like her in the long haul. But she needed another soldier in her life like he needed a bullet through his skull.

  After he’d checked the perimeter, he checked the exit. Dane listened. It was surprising to him how many of his enemies gave themselves away because they lacked the ability to be quiet. Sand didn’t make a whole lot of noise but he’d encountered enemies who breathed too heavily. Or whispered while out on patrol. Death wish?