Ruining the Rancher (Masterson County Book 3) Page 6

  Her mother had died in a car accident. Perci and their brother Phoenix had also almost died in that wreck. Not only could she not forget what had happened to her, but the grief for her mother was incredibly strong at the moment.

  Life had been so much easier before they'd lost her mother.

  Levi was almost at the door. In that instant, the last thing she wanted him to do was leave.

  "Levi? "

  He jerked around. "Did I wake you, honey?"

  "I don't know, I haven't slept all that great anyway. What are you doing here?"

  "Checking on you."

  "Oh." She didn't know what to say to a man in her bedroom. It was definitely not something she had ever experienced before. “I’m sore, but I’ll be ok.”

  “I know. I just...you scared me today.” He walked back to the bed and just stood there. Pan pulled the blankets closer, then reached out with one hand and flipped on the lamp.

  He wore thin gray shorts and the rest of him was completely bare.

  Levi took perfect cowboy body to the extremes. She had never noticed a man’s chest quite the same way before. A small thin line of dark hair ran down his abs and the fingers on her uninjured hand actually curled. She wanted to touch him.

  She wanted to touch.

  Pan didn’t know if it was sore and vulnerable and it was hard to keep on the plan or because it was something about him. Because something in her had changed.

  The one thing she really remembered about the accident was opening her eyes and seeing him. He’d been right there, and things hadn’t seemed quite so terrifying.

  Or maybe she had only been dreaming that.

  “I scared me, too.” What was she supposed to say now? Levi sank down onto the bed next to her, sending her rolling toward his greater weight.

  He felt so warm, so real. The fingers of her uninjured hand were on top of the blanket. Levi wrapped his hand around hers. “I’m glad you’re here with me, honey. I’m sorry if I woke you up. In my head I know you’re ok, but as soon as I close my eyes...”

  “Yeah. Thank you. For being out there. Whenever I think of Parker out there, being so scared like that. He’s still nervous in a car anyway because of what happened to our mother. This...I should have seen the other car faster.”

  “Hey! Not your fault. Parker said the black car was just there out of nowhere. You’re both safe now.” He turned slightly, still holding her fingers. “And I finally got you right where I want you.”

  “What?”

  He grinned that trademark Levi Masterson grin. “I have you in my lair, honey. Maybe not in my bed exactly, but close enough. I’m going to work on moving you a few yards down the hall—toward my room, though, not Nate’s. Eventually, I’ll get you on my sheets. They’re silk.”

  “I know what your sheets are made of—I changed them yesterday morning. I’m not interested in being the latest Levi Masterson conquest.” Levi liked women—everyone in the county knew it. Pan couldn’t be just a passing thing to him. She just…couldn’t.

  “Honey, you are not some conquest. You never will be. Like I said before, I haven’t even thought about another woman since that day we almost lost Phoebe and Joel. I haven’t been able to.”

  “Why?” That day had been horrible, terrifying. One of the worst ones in her adult life. If he hadn’t been there with her and the boys she would have fractured into millions of pieces. He had just been there.

  And she hadn’t been able to shake him since.

  “Hell, I don’t know. You certainly aren’t an easy woman. You’re really quite contrary.” He pulled her hand up to his mouth, and kissed her palm lightly. “Most women are a bit more manageable.”

  She laughed when he grinned at her. “Levi, you’re an idiot.”

  “Over you, yes.” He tucked her hand back under the blanket, then waggled his eyebrows at her. “Love the outfit, honey. That one of Nate’s t-shirts?”

  “Yes.” She tried not to blush, but all she had on was his brother’s shirt. Phoebe had snagged it for her from the fresh laundry Pan had left on the counter in the laundry room. Her sisters hadn’t even helped her into fresh underwear. She was practically as naked as she could get.

  “Hmmm. No—on second thought, I think it’s mine. Nate has a similar one, but his has blue lettering. My shirt, my lair, my woman. I like that. Symmetrical, and all.” He toyed with the soft cotton sleeve, those long warm fingers of his brushing her skin lightly.

  “Go away.” No. Don’t go. Stay. Pan didn’t quite know what she wanted at the moment. “I’m not your woman. It doesn’t work that way.”

  “Of course it does. I’m a Masterson. You’re a Tyler. We’re kind of a given. Or don’t you listen to town gossip?”

  “That is all your fault. And I still haven’t forgiven you.” He’d told his friends she was off limits once. And they’d all just run with the idea. Some had even teased her about it. At the grocery store, the mechanic—who was a Tyler cousin, the gas station, people everywhere had just acted like she was Levi’s girl. Because he had said she was.

  Never mind the fact that she wasn’t interested in dating anyone at the moment—they’d all just believed him when he’d said the two of them had something going.

  A woman wanted a choice.

  And the idiot had yet to apologize for embarrassing her like that. She strongly suspected Levi never would.

  He rolled back on the bed, quickly slipping under the blanket next to her. He rested his head on her pillow--but kept his hands to himself, mostly. One might have strayed, a little. Pan wasn’t totally sure.

  “You will eventually. I’m kind of cute. Or so I’ve been told.”

  Levi pulled the quilt up around her shoulders, then brushed his fingers through her hair. “One little kiss, and then I’ll leave you alone. For the rest of the night.”

  “You’re getting up in an hour to go milk Bessie.”

  “So give me a snuggle before I have to go out into the cold.”

  “I washed your thermal underwear yesterday. I think you’ll be just fine.” They sounded so stupidly domestic, didn’t they? Pan wanted to fight that idea—but she also just wanted to cuddle up next to him.

  “How about at least a hug? Something to help chase the nightmares away?” One hand snuck around her waist and practically scorched her skin. One mostly bare leg slid alongside hers. He scooted closer, and then he was right there, wrapped around her. Pan felt every hard muscle of him pressed against her. She shivered.

  He felt so hot against her. She hadn’t expected him to put out so much literal heat. Nor had she expected to want to just curl up like a cat next to him. To just...snuggle.

  Pandora Claire Tyler never snuggled up to men. Period. So what made this one so different? So much of a plan-wrecker?

  She didn’t have a clue. But Pan couldn’t seem to force herself to make him let her go. Her body relaxed against his and she pressed closer. Or maybe he did. She wasn’t certain, and what did it matter, really? No one but the two of them were ever going to know what happened between them in this bed. Unless she told them. Or he did. Which she somehow doubted he ever would.

  His arms were strong around her, warm and safe, and exactly what she needed.

  He brushed his lips against her forehead. “Go back to sleep. I’ll just hold you for a while. Just for a while. You can go back to resisting me in the morning.”

  “It is morning, Levi.”

  “Is it? Then go back to sleep and I’ll take care of everything today.”

  Pan did just that, snuggled against his chest. Like it was easy, or something.

  29

  Levi held her until the sun peeked through the window and he heard his brother’s footsteps. Nate stuck his head in the room, then snorted when he saw Levi wrapped around the sleeping woman. “You’re just as pathetic as the other two.”

  “No. I’m just as brilliant as the other two. You’re the one who can’t get two brain cells together to see what—who—is right in front of your f
ace.” Levi didn’t want to take his hands off of her, but like it or not, he had work to do. And his girl was out; he could feel her light breath brushing against his neck. He hadn’t meant to slide into the bed with her, but it had just happened. He wouldn’t regret it. “If you were as smart as Mama always claimed, you’d have already gotten Perci to look beyond your ugly face. Instead you just snip at the poor girl all the time.”

  Levi slipped from the bed, then tucked the blanket tight around Pan. She hummed in her sleep and snuggled back down into the spot he’d just left. It wasn’t a very big bed; he definitely hadn’t slept. No, he just laid there and held her.

  “I’ll handle Persephone as I see fit.”

  “Why do you call her that? No one else does.”

  “Oh? Rather like Pandora Claire there?” Nate asked, his usual morning grumble out in full force. He stepped further into the room. “I came by to check on her—and get your sorry ass. Did you forget that Tyler was bringing back that guy from Texas with him today to see the bulls in the north barn?”

  “Hell no, I didn’t forget. It’s just...” He looked back at where Pan still slept, oblivious to the two men in the room with her. “Hell, Nate, I just...hell. What’s a guy supposed to do?”

  “What is it about Tylers that makes the three of you act like total fools? Did you really come in here and climb in bed with our housekeeper?”

  “It wasn’t like that. Well...mostly. We...I just checked on her, she was awake and we started talking. She just fell back asleep an hour ago. And I stayed.” He didn’t know why he felt so awkward. He’d certainly had women in his bed before—sometimes in the same house as his brothers. They knew he was no saint where the opposite sex was involved. Because it was her—that’s why it mattered. He would never want anyone thinking less of her. “I’m not going to do anything to hurt her, Nate. I’m not a dog.”

  “No. But she’s one of the damned Tylers. You can’t pull your usual stuff with Phoebe and Pip’s younger sister.”

  “I’m not pulling anything. At least nothing Joel and Matt haven’t already pulled.”

  “Shit. You’re that serious about her?”

  “Yes.” With every breath he took he was growing more and more serious about that woman. “Why doesn’t anyone believe me about that?”

  “Because you’ve never been serious before?” Nate just shook his head and half-snarled. Levi was used to it. His brother was Constant Cranky the First. “What are you going to do about it?”

  “I don’t have a damned clue.”

  But it gave him something to think about as he hurriedly showered and dressed.

  Pan’s father would be there within the hour, bringing with him the guy responsible for breeding the bull that had formed the basis of Levi's experimental herd. He still had some frozen semen to continue his early work on the herd, but if there was something genetically wrong with the bull that had caused this, then he wasn’t about to pass it on. Not until he and Deane had time to figure out the answers. This was too important of a meeting for him to miss, no matter how much he wanted to stay and take care of Pan.

  Levi would just deal with Deane, then send the Texan on his way. And hurry back to Pan.

  He checked on her once before he headed outside, but she was still sound asleep. He was covering her up again—apparently Pan liked to kick the covers off—when the door to the guestroom open, and another small redhead walked in. For a moment he thought it was his sister-in-law Pip, until he saw the scar over the left eyebrow. Pip's was over her right. "Hey Perci; I didn't hear you pull up."

  "I'm on my way into the hospital, but I thought I'd check on Pan first."

  "Your daddy is on his way here soon. I figured to check on her myself before heading out to meet him."

  "I have about an hour before I have to leave. I'll stick around. You go play rancher, I’ll play nurse with my baby sister."

  She leaned over her sister and stared at Pan for moment. Then she checked her pulse and did other nurse-y stuff, before nodding. "Just another knock on the hardest melon ever. I think she'll be just fine."

  "That's what I told them," a male voice said from the hallway. Nate was there, his habitual look of irritation on the face so like Levi father's. Nate, more than any of the other brothers, resembled the best man Levi had ever known. "Aren't you on the schedule for this morning?"

  Levi watched her chin go up. She certainly looked like her sister when she did that. Pan was just as stubborn. "I switched with Jaicie. She took the early morning shift, so I could spend some time with my sister. Is that okay with you?"

  "When you're ready to leave, I'll drive you in. You can pick up your car here this evening. No doubt, you'll be back here to check on her tonight. You might as well save the gas.”

  Levi hid a snicker. His brother had it bad, and was stupid for not trying to do something about it. Perci was just as fascinating—well maybe not quite as fascinating—as Pan. His brother was an idiot for fighting the inevitable.

  The truth was, the four Tyler women had been practically custom-made for the Masterson men. Every moment Levi's brother spent fighting it, was one more moment that he wasn't with his girl. Nate was the only one missing out. His brother would eventually figure it out; Nate was supposed to be the smartest of them all. It was just a matter of time. In the meantime, Levi had things he needed to take care of.

  30

  Pan’s father was four inches shorter than Levi, ripcord lean, with coloring similar to all of his daughters.

  He was one hell of a guy, who worked hard for his family. First thing Phil asked after the helicopter had deposited him and his guests in the middle of the front lawn was about his youngest son, and his youngest daughter. It was the only place that had the land, thanks to the damp movie crew everywhere. Levi filled him in quickly.

  The man Phil had brought back with him was around Levi's age and size. A gorgeous blonde woman stood next to Deane. Levi took a moment to appreciate. Before Pan, this was the type of woman who would definitely catch his attention. Before Pan. Beautiful, most definitely—but he preferred stubborn strawberry blondes with Tyler blue eyes.

  Deane apologized for the bull’s sudden death, getting straight to business in a way Levi appreciated.

  "To be honest, at this point were not sure what happened. My brother—he's a vet—couldn't find any definitive answer. At this point, we don't know if it was natural causes or not.”

  "We'll send off samples for genetic testing. This line of cattle needs to be genetically sound before they're sent out into the world." Deane prided himself on his reputation, same as Levi. It was obvious. He was glad Phil had mentioned Deane’s experimental work to him a few months ago. Even with this setback, he didn’t regret it.

  "Why don't you all come inside? We'll give Phil a chance to check on his kids, and get you all something to drink,” he said, after they’d inspected the three other bulls from Deane’s line.

  "I spoke with Pip this morning, Levi. She said her sister did well through the night," Phil said.

  "She was awake a few times, but I checked on her myself a little while ago. Just a concussion, or so Nate promises me."

  Levi didn't miss the confusion on the Texans faces. "Phil’s daughter Pandora and his youngest son Parker were in a bit of a fender bender yesterday. Parker's fine, but Pan took a hard knock to the head. She's resting inside."

  Phil patted Levi on the shoulder. "Thanks again, Levi. For being there when I needed you."

  "If I have my way, I always will be. It's your daughter that's proving mighty stubborn."

  The blonde woman looked at Levi. "So you are one of his sons-in-law?"

  "No. My brothers Joel and Matt are Phil’s sons-in-law. I'm not one, yet. Pan's proving mighty stubborn in that regard. It's a Tyler female trait."

  Deane laughed. "I think it's just a beautiful woman trait."

  His fine fiancé just smirked at him. "Don't we have some business to attend to? I'm not sure how long Marc and the kids can deal with
Horace."

  Deane smiled back at her, obviously beyond gone. Lucky bastard. Levi glanced back toward the house, just as a pretty strawberry blonde walked out the back door—a laundry basket in her hands. He frowned. "Yes, ma'am. Business it is, as soon as I talk to her about taking it easy today.”

  Phil laughed. “Son, that’s going to be a losing battle. She’s just as stubborn as her mother ever was. Pan’s more like my wife than any of the others.”

  “Obstinate woman is going to be the death of me.”

  Deane slapped him on the shoulder and grinned at his own woman. “I know exactly how you feel.”

  “Can it, Worthington, or I’ll feed you to the cows.”

  “See? She totally loves me.”

  Levi barely heard their words—his entire focus was on his own girl. She should still be curled up in bed, resting. Not cleaning his damned house and folding his underwear.

  31

  She was out there again. Pan. She was actually hanging out laundry on a line. It had been a long time since he'd seen a woman do that. John couldn't help but stay right where he was and watch her. He had to admit, Tyler women were damned fine.

  Tom's wife Sadie used to hang the laundry on the line. Before she had died.

  At the hands of Phoenix Tyler. He would never forget that. John stayed where he was, and just watched Phoenix’s sister. The binoculars he'd found in the shed weren't the best, but he used them to keep himself entertained. He had to do something, all of those hours, after all.

  He was getting itchy again, he needed a fix. There were only a few places that he could get what he needed. And he had to do it at night.

  Viv always had what he needed. If he could somehow get to her.

  He'd sent her a text from a prepaid cell phone, but she was out of town. She'd be back tomorrow, and then he'd get what he needed.

  While he waited, he would just watch those Tylers and Mastersons and imagine what it was he’d do to make them pay for all that they had taken from him.