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  The letter he had left her with his will had assured her he was only trying to protect Jase. She would be helping him look out for Jase’s future, he’d promised her. Personally, she thought Jase looked out for his future fine. He had ensured he had no heart, no weakness. It was hard to hurt a man who protected himself to that extent.

  It didn’t stop her feelings from being hurt that Jase hadn’t been waiting for her though. The appearance that he was deliberately leaving her to sit and rot pissed her off further. She didn’t much care for the fact he was treating her so brutishly after all the years he had protected her. After all the years she had loved him.

  He’d sent her straight back to New York and to college after the reading of the will. Her visits back, coinciding with the demands of the will, hadn’t been well received. He hadn’t left, but he’d glared at her continually, as though she had been caught stealing the silver or something.

  Every two months she was required to spend at least one week at the ranch in addition to the three months, if she decided to sign the ranch over to Jase.

  It was playing hell with her school schedule. It wasn’t allowing for the job she had hoped to take that summer, and it was beginning to wear on her nerves. She’d had to take a heavier class load to accommodate that last week, and the past six weeks had been even longer to allow for the three-month stay Poppa Jason had demanded in order to relinquish the ranch at the one-year anniversary of his death.

  Three more months and she could simply turn the ranch over to Jase, she promised herself. Then, perhaps, she could get on with her own life. It was evident Jase didn’t want her in his.

  That knowledge tormented her in the darkest parts of the night, and it hurt. The pain of knowing he wanted nothing more to do with her was destroying her. The least he could have done was simply ignore the weakness she had displayed that night. He hadn’t had to turn against her completely. It wasn’t as though she had forced him to break marriage vows or anything.

  The sound of a vehicle racing toward the hanger had her standing, pushing the luggage into position and gathering the two extra bags that went with it. She was standing in front of them, waiting, when the vehicle came into view.

  Her heart began racing at the sight of the black SUV that sped around the front of the hanger and came to a hard stop. The wheels only barely kept from screaming. The back door flew open, and as the driver stepped from the front, Jase jumped from the back, an irritable scowl on his face.

  “Stacey called you?” She glared back at him, suddenly angry and feeling very betrayed by her friend.

  “She called the house, which you could have done,” he informed her as the driver collected her luggage.

  Standing in front of her, his hands propped on his muscled hips, a brooding glare shaping his expression, the dark brown, nearly black of his eyes framed by thick, heavy black lashes almost melted her.

  Melted her heart, melted her body, definitely melted her thighs. They began to feel weak and her clit throbbed with an awakening sensation of arousal. He looked savage. Savagely handsome, savagely sexy, dominant and powerful.

  Dammit, she hated it when that happened.

  She hadn’t expected Jase when she’d made the decision to call Stacey, hence the reason for removing the bra. Now her nipples were standing tight and hard, pressing against the snug, soft cotton of her camisole.

  And that melting thing? Her pussy was melting. She was suddenly slick and wet, the rush of liquid heat sensitizing her more than she had been to begin with.

  “I did call the main house when the plane first landed and you didn’t answer,” she told him, her jaw tightening at the effort to push the words past her lips and her attention past her arousal. “No one answered.”

  A frown vee’d the hard line of his forehead. “I’ll find out why,” he promised her as he turned back to the SUV. “Let’s go, I don’t have all day.”

  She followed behind him, accepting his help into the vehicle before scooting across the wide seat to the other side as he also moved in.

  “How long have you been waiting?” he asked as the slammed the door closed.

  Brenna stared at the dark window between the driver and passenger areas. “Since about seven thirty this morning when Noah dropped me off.”

  “Noah wasn’t supposed to leave New York until tomorrow morning.” His voice was more a growl now. “How the hell do you manage to get into these situations, Brenna?”

  He sounded as though he thought it was her fault she was left stranded in the middle of nowhere, waiting on him to pick her up.

  “Well, he called last night and said there was a change of plans.” Turning her head, she stared back at him angrily. “I’ve been calling your cell phone since then, and you’ve refused to answer. If you would stop ignoring my calls, then perhaps I wouldn’t get into these situations, now would I, Jase.”

  “I wasn’t ignoring your calls,” he informed her, his voice growing tighter by the second. “I didn’t get them.”

  She stared at him silently for a long second, wondering what she was supposed to say to that.

  “Do you still have your cell phone?” she asked him.

  His frown darkened. “Yes.” It was a tight, hard sound.

  “And it still works?”

  “Miriam has been answering my calls today while I was in meetings,” he finally admitted. “She didn’t mention you calling or having missed your calls.”

  Miriam Dallas, his personal assistant.

  Slinky, sexy, black-haired Miriam.

  Brenna pursed her lips and nodded silently as she turned her head and stared out the window, watching the scenery pass by.

  “I’ll ask her about the calls.” There was a vein of defensiveness in his voice.

  Brenna shrugged as though it didn’t matter, but it did. She’d sat there at the hanger for hours calling him. It had taken Stacey to get through, to get him here. Miriam didn’t dare ignore Stacey’s calls. She lived too close and saw Jase too often for that to work. Besides, Miriam also knew Stacey well. If she hadn’t answered, then the other girl would have been at the ranch raising hell over being ignored.

  What confused Brenna was why Miriam thought Brenna wouldn’t call Stacey? She and Stacey had been friends since they were ten. How had she thought it would work to attempt to keep Jase from knowing she was in?

  No doubt, Miriam would have a completely logical explanation though, she always did. She was a master manipulator and she always seemed to get away with whatever game she was playing at the time.

  It amazed her Jase didn’t see through the other woman. Instead, he defended Miriam every chance he had.

  “If you called…”

  “There is no ‘if’, Jase,” she shot back, her arms crossing over her breasts. “I did call. And whoever had your phone will know I called. According to you, that someone is Miriam.”

  “You’ve never liked Miriam—”

  “Oh, give me a break,” she retorted, turning to him angrily. “Miriam can’t stand me and we both know it. Don’t play games with me, Jase.”

  His lips tightened, his dark eyes narrowing on her. “I know no such thing,” he stated coolly. “She claims differently.”

  “Then by all means, believe Miriam over me.” The pain was almost more than she could stand. “You’ve known her practically all her life, haven’t you, Jase? You all but helped raise her.” Pain filled her voice. “She followed you around like a damned puppy and idolized you all her life, didn’t she, Jase? Oh hell yes, believe her, someone you’ve known for only two years. Believe her, Jase, because I’m sure you can tell when she’s lying, can’t you?”

  Miriam Dallas had only worked for Jase for the past two years. It had been Brenna who had loved him, Brenna who had never been able to lie to him, and Brenna who had withstood the disgust and hatred of almost everyone they knew for the past nine months because of what his father had requested of her. To help protect him from whatever Poppa Jason thought he needed protection from.


  Brenna had to fight the tears. She had to turn away from him. She had to cover her lips to keep from sobbing, but nothing could stop the single tear that trailed down her face.

  “You’ve changed,” he said quietly. “You’re not the girl you used to be.”

  “You’re right,” she whispered, her lips trembling, the ache in her heart too deep, too desperate to deny as she turned back to him. “I grew up, didn’t I, Jase? I went from that little girl to the woman who idolized you, and that’s what scares the shit out of you. That’s why you want to hate me so bad that you latched on to the first available excuse, isn’t it? Because God forbid that someone should actually expect you to care for them as well.” A sob, uncontrolled and tearing at her chest, tore from her. “Now wouldn’t that just be too uncalled for?”

  She turned away again. Eyes closed, she pretended to stare out the window, to watch the landscape roll back. To try to contain all the pent-up anger and pain that seemed determined to escape now that there seemed to be an outlet.

  She could barely breathe. She felt as though she were smothering. She hurt. She hurt from the inside out. The pain had been building inside her for nine months, lashing at her until it was a burning ache that never extinguished.

  He was the man she measured every other man against.

  He was the reason she was still a virgin.

  And none of it would matter any longer. She had three months and she could leave. Three months, and he would be out of her life forever.

  Chapter Three

  Was he really going to let her stay in her room and cry alone?

  In all the years Brenna had lived on the Arrow S, he had never allowed her to cry alone. From the moment his father had brought the delicate, strawberry-blonde child and her quiet mother to the ranch, Jase had been unable to still the protective instinct that had grown inside him.

  He had been eighteen at the time. He hadn’t wanted a mother or a sibling. His father had told him point-blank Brenna wasn’t his sister. She was the daughter of the woman his father had married, nothing more. All he needed Jase to do was make sure no one on the ranch or anywhere else ever harmed her. Man or woman.

  That had made much more sense to him.

  Now, staring up the stairs outside his office, he placed one foot on the bottom step and started up.

  “Jase, those faxes you were waiting for have come in and that buyer in Dallas is on the phone if you still want to talk to him. I believe I may have convinced him that bull is well worth the additional thousands you’re asking for.”

  There was an edge of triumph in Miriam’s voice, and Jase grimaced.

  He’d asked an outrageous amount for that damn bull because he didn’t want to sell him. Neither, though, did he want to piss off the buyer. Let him think Jase didn’t want to sell, and he would move the moon and stars in his attempt to convince Jase to do just that.

  Hell, he could have sworn Miriam had understood the situation.

  He turned slowly and stared down at her silently for long moments.

  Raven-hued, her short, silky hair was cut into an attractive “choppy” look. With wide blue eyes and creamy skin, she was a beautiful woman. She was also a friend, which made the situation that had developed between him and Brenna over the past two years that much harder to understand.

  “Why didn’t you tell me Brenna was calling earlier?”

  He didn’t ask if Brenna had called. He knew she had called.

  As she said in the car, he had known her most of her life. He knew how she lied, how she evaded, and he knew how to catch her in the fine art of feminine wiles. She’d been flirting with him since she was ten, and for the past several years, every time he saw her, his dick got hard.

  On the other hand, there was no desire for Miriam, and he knew for a fact she had never acted as though she thought any more of him than she did any of her other friends.

  She stared back at him in affected surprise. And she didn’t fool him in the least.

  “Let me warn you now, lying to me could cost you this job.” Looking for a new assistant wasn’t something he wanted to deal with at the moment and losing a friend was never a preferred option. But he wouldn’t tolerate lies either. This wasn’t the reason he had hired her and she knew it. She was here not to lie to him, but to effectively ensure he managed to keep his dick in his pants.

  The lush, reddened lips thinned as he watched the calculated gleam that flashed in her gaze.

  “We were busy, Jase,” she told him. “I was going to tell you, but when I came looking for you, you had already left.” She gave a delicate shrug of her slender shoulders beneath the sleeveless blouse she’d paired with an above-the-knee black skirt and four inch heels.

  “I’ll no longer need you to monitor the calls coming to my cell phone during my meeting. I’ll simply let voice mail take the ones I believe can wait,” he told her. “And tell the buyer the bull has already been promised to a buyer who wishes to remain anonymous.”

  A frown jerked between her brows. “Jase, I busted my ass to sell that bull for you.”

  “No, you flirted and teased until you got the price, knowing full well the reason I had overpriced him was to hold on to him for a while. What I’d like to know is why you’re so damned determined to sell that bull for me.”

  “Perhaps I wanted to do my job?” He could see her jaw flexing, the obvious control she was exerting over her tongue. “The only reason you’re holding on to it is because Brenna bought it for you, not because it holds any value.”

  Brenna had bought the stubborn, mean-assed brute eight years before after Jase had admired it as a calf. She’d completely charmed the owner, a New Mexico rancher no one had charmed in decades, and bought the black calf for next to nothing. That bull had become the cornerstone of his herd, with his breeding prices rising by the year until Jase had retired him in the past year. He wasn’t just a profitable asset, he was also a gift from the girl Brenna had been. The girl who had been convinced Jase could do no wrong.

  Hell no, he wasn’t selling him, and he would be damned if he would allow Miriam to manipulate him into it for whatever reason she had come up with. Like Brenna, her actions were beginning to confuse the hell out of him. “Go home for the day, Miriam,” he ordered her. “Better yet, for the next two days. Give careful thought to how you want to continue our business relationship. Because let me assure you, I will not tolerate anyone interfering in my relationship with Brenna in that manner. Not anyone. Not at any time.”

  “I see.” Her lips pursed, though with anger or disapproval he wasn’t certain. “And what of the opinion that she’s out to use your sibling relationship to steal this ranch from you? Maybe I was simply trying to help you let go of that past, Jase, so you can get on with your future.”

  A bark of mocking laughter left his lips. “Steal it? Son of a bitch, Dad gave her forty percent of it. She doesn’t have to steal shit, Miriam. And the next time you question my relationship with her or my decisions, then I promise you, you won’t be sticking around here to regret it.”

  He didn’t give her a chance to retort.

  Turning on his heel, he moved up the stairs, making his decision in that instant. He wasn’t leaving Brenna to cry alone, because she was right, he’d known her long enough to know her clear to the bone.

  He’d thought he knew Miriam almost that well. He’d known her in college. She’d been married to one of his best friends who had managed to lose his life overseas.

  Miriam he could live without, though. Brenna was another story. No matter how angry he was with her, there was no way he could live without her presence in his life. Moving toward the closed bedroom door across from his suite, he turned the knob and pushed it open, expecting to find a sobbing Brenna.

  What he found brought him to a full, hard stop.

  She had been crying. Her eyes were still swollen, her face cleaned of makeup and pale.

  Until he pushed into her room.

  She flushed.

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nbsp; From the edge of the towel wrapped around her breasts to her hair.

  She sat on the bed, one slender foot propped on the mattress as she held a bottle of nail polish, obviously preparing to paint those delicate little toes as she sniffed back more tears.

  The more Brenna was hurt inside, the more she primped on the outside. As though the very act of pampering herself with unusual attention comforted her. It was a damn good thing, because he and his father had often been at a loss as to how to comfort a young girl’s tears.

  This wasn’t a young girl sitting on the bed though.

  This was a woman. The woman who haunted his fantasies.

  The woman who made his dick spike hard and confused the hell out of him.

  And she was naked beneath the towel.

  The edge fell away from her thigh, revealing the soft, creamy flesh. As she stared at him, her breasts began to move heavily beneath the material, and he knew her nipples were hard.

  As they had been when he’d picked her up.

  Dressed in cutoff denim shorts, one of those thin, skinny-strapped tops she wore and strappy sandals. Flesh tanned a golden brown, that mass of fiery, sunny blonde hair cascading around her shoulders in a riot of heavy waves. She had become instantly aroused when he got out of the vehicle.

  Her nipples had gone hard immediately.

  Her thighs had tightened.

  She’d been wet. He’d known she was wet. Wet and wild and so very ready to fuck.

  He pushed the bedroom door closed before locking it, almost without noticing, as she stared back at him, her chocolate-brown eyes wide and filled with arousal.

  The sight of her feminine hunger had an effect on him that he had never quite known how to combat. For the past several years, since the day she had turned eighteen, it was as though a part of him had awakened that had been asleep before.

  He moved toward her.

  Dazed and so fucking hungry for the taste of her he could barely stand it.

  All he could think about was the night of his birthday. Finding her stretched out on her bed in that evening gown, her eyes so dark and mysterious, her nipples as hard as little pebbles beneath the material.