So Not a Cowgirl

“You what?”
Tanya Montrose stopped pacing back and forth in front of the windows of her loft in Midtown Sacramento to respond to her best friend’s shocked question. “Broke his hand.”
“You broke your boss’s hand?” The question came out as more of a gasp than an actual inquiry.
“El Jerko’s not really my boss. Well, he is and he isn’t. He’s just one of the three partners; one of the three owners, one of the three bosses. But he’s the least liked by everyone at the firm, including the other partners.” He was the absolute least liked partner, by her especially. Russell Haynesworth was a disgrace to bosses everywhere. A managerial lowlife. “And I didn’t actually break his hand; it was his wrist. He put that hand one time too many times on my person.”
The sunny March afternoon outside her window faded from her mind as she distinctly recalled that fatal day in the conference room. It still made her furious. Scumbag! She continued her explanation with renewed outrage. “He snuck up behind me when I was gathering up my notes after the meeting and cupped my buttocks. Thought he was being sexy, squeezing my tush and trying to breathe down my neck. He doesn’t think so now, though. Ha!”
On the other end of the line, Mandy heaved a sigh that clearly summed up her amazement with the length of stupidity that Tanya had gone to this time. Tanya had heard this kind of sigh many times from her friend over the years. From her parents, too. Especially her father. His sigh had been sort of a combination of resignation to her latest bit of trouble and a warning of something unpleasant to happen next: usually being turned over his knee for a formal display of his disapproval. She’d always been something of a slow learner when it came to staying out of trouble, or keeping the wrong words from zipping out of her mouth at the wrong time. But there had never been anything slow about her father’s reaction, or slow about the way his hand connected with her poor bottom.
Inching those annoying thoughts away, she watched a pair of twenty-something geeks carrying laptops into the coffee shop across the street from her building. Maybe she’d drag out her laptop, too, and join them in a little while. She could down some much-loved coffee and a donut, and start an on-line search for a new job. New job. Her hackles rose in indignation.
“I’m pissed about being suspended temporarily, while the situation is investigated.” Her displeasure boiled up again, and the steady clanging of the warning bell of the approaching commuter train on the nearby tracks only added to her irritation.
She blew out a breath to steady her emotions. It didn’t really help. Her mind went back to replaying the scene where she’d shoved the middle-aged, so-not-God’s-gift-to-women against the conference room table. Only she shoved him harder this time. Hard enough that she did break his hand and his wrist.
“This is so unfair,” she grumbled. “Besides that, who even for a minute lets go of a highly-trained accountant in a desperately busy accounting firm in the middle of March, in the middle of tax season? Idiots, that’s who.” Immediately she saw the stacks of tax files she’d been working on, and the many more that she needed to work on. Now the rest of the already over-burdened staff of accountants would be bombarded with even more work. “Idiots,” she mumbled again, clenching her hands into fists.
“They may be idiots, and El Jerko especially, but what are you going to do while the partners sort through this mess? A mess we both know is going to reflect more on you than on Haynesworth,” Mandy said pointedly.
What was she going to do? She wouldn’t be getting overtime pay now, which she’d been counting on to pay down some recent debt. She’d be lucky to even get her normal check on time. Her stomach tensed with worry. She’d really hoped to stop living from paycheck to paycheck sometime this year, but now. . . .
“If worse comes to worse, which is likely and we both know it, you’ll have a hard time getting another position with any of the big firms there in Sacramento. Since the ‘big boys’ tend to play together and watch each other’s backs. He’s a partner; you’re a struggling accountant.”
Tanya knew every word Mandy had said was true. Even if the other two partners discovered what a disgusting pig Haynesworth was, they probably wouldn’t do much more than tell him to take a vacation for a while until the instance was forgotten. He held too much weight in the firm and had too many well-connected, powerful clients for them to risk their own plush existences. She was expendable.
Her lower lip trembled and tears welled in her eyes, but she blinked them away. She didn’t have time to cry over this mess…well, not again. Maybe she’d give in to another crying jag later. Right now she needed to find a new job, because Mandy was right, she would be the one made to look bad in this situation. And a week had already gone by since “the incident.”
“I could talk to a lawyer friend of mine about a sexual harassment lawsuit,” Mandy offered.
Haynesworth might have taken liberties several times with his roving hands when he managed to get too close to Tanya in the file room, or the conference room, or in the lounge, but she really didn’t want to take him on any more than she had. Okay, she still wished she’d actually broken his whole hand. Maybe kneed him in his pride and joy too. But, other than that, she really wanted to put all of this behind her. “No, no lawsuit.”
She glanced back out the window at the hazy white sky and the little pockets of people walking on the sidewalks below. She wanted to get out there, too, and let the beautiful early spring weather surround her; let it momentarily heal her emotional wounds. She wanted to forget the whole miserable situation for just a few hours. After that she’d need to get focused on finding a new job.
“Have you considered going to stay with your parents in Denver for a while? Maybe move back to Colorado and get a new position somewhere in that area?”
“Absolutely not!” Tanya didn’t even hesitate in answering. Sure, her parents would take her in again. She’d already bounced in and out of their home several times in the last half dozen years when she’d been between jobs as she’d struggled finding where she really belonged. Her father loved her, tolerated her, but still got seriously annoyed with her sometimes. Especially when she tended to walk away from good positions just because she got bored there, or decided she didn’t like the city. The last time she’d done that and moved back home—for only a month—he’d been really upset with her. He’d made that particularly clear with a session over his knee. Jeez, she was twenty-eight and still got spanked by her father. How humiliating was that! Painful, too, of course.
“Get over it, Tanya, you know you deserved it,” Mandy said, knowing and sensing where Tanya’s thoughts had wandered. “Anyway, this time it’s different.”
Tanya felt so as well, but wasn’t sure her father would see it that way, at least not completely. Sometimes she thought he just warmed her bottom out of habit, out of too many years of feeling like it was necessary. She didn’t want to chance that reaction this time. What she needed was a new accounting position and a way to pay her credit card bills and make her car payment. She didn’t need a hot bottom.
“Drew!” Mandy gasped. “I’ll call my brother right now. He’s just complicated his life. Remember he’s got that ranch? The kind of ranch that also does trail rides and round-ups for city people who want to play cowboy or cowgirl. And now he’s started a non-profit animal rescue foundation. He needs your business savvy. I just know it.”
“You want me to live in the middle of nowhere Kansas—”
“Hey! I’m from Kansas, and it’s a good place to be from.”
Tanya rolled her eyes and plopped down on the window seat, staring out at the city she loved. Okay, sort of loved. But at least this city had shopping malls, boutiques, funky little coffee shops for geeks like her, and nightlife. “Sorry. But really, can you see me in some little town without at least a dozen shoe stores? A Starbucks on every corner?”
“Not really, but you need a change and at least a temporary way of paying for all those shoes and flashy clothes you like to buy. Right?” When Tanya didn’t respond, she pressed, “Right?”
Shoulders slumping, Tanya admitted momentary defeat. “He probably won’t agree to your idea anyway. He didn’t seem all that fond of me the last time we met, when you brought him with you to see your great aunt out here.”
Mandy’s laugh lightened Tanya’s mood. It always did. “I’ll agree you were basically a surprise to him. Most of my friends are, well, rather conservative. I’m sure he thought because you’re a CPA you would be, too.”
“People shouldn’t make assumptions.” She’d never forget the way his eyes had widened at first sight of her in the skin-tight leather pants she’d had on that winter day. Or the way his gaze had kept straying to the low cut of her top, even if he’d tried hard not to look. She hadn’t minded his interest, but he certainly had.
“Call him?” Mandy questioned.
“Give it a try, but I’ll start searching the Internet too.”
Drew Weatherford needed to get out of bed. Now. Yet he lay without moving, staring at the alarm clock he’d just tapped off for the second time. Second time! Hell, he’d never even used an alarm clock until this last week. He’d always risen before the sun even thought about slipping into the morning sky. But he’d also gone to bed with the ten o’clock news for more years than he could remember. He rubbed at his burning eyes and tried to make his legs edge toward the side of the bed. Wasn’t happening. Damn.
Growling at himself, he forced his worn out body to action. The routine he’d settled into lately: doing chores beginning at six in the morning, working with one of the new horses for a couple of hours before noon, leading a group of city dudes out on the trail for an overnight campout with a few of his ranch hands or battling down impatience while he taught someone who shouldn’t be on a horse how to ride, and then battling to keep up with the ranch books until late in the night. Plus, now he had all the numerous details of dealing with his newest venture, the animal rescue foundation. He wished that he could give all of his attention to that business, but it just wasn’t possible yet. So, for now, his daily routine stunk. Particularly the working with citified cowboys and cowgirls part. Yet that part of the business had really taken off, mostly by word of mouth. So he shouldn’t be complaining.
He slid off the bed and stretched his sore body. He shouldn’t have spent the last couple of nights sleeping out on the hard ground in a sleeping bag with the latest batch of cowboy-wannabes. His thirty-three-year-old bones were too old for that sort of nonsense. Of course he shouldn’t have followed that up with a marathon of late night bookkeeping, but he’d gotten behind with the books. That annoyed him. From now on he’d pay more attention to the debits and credits, and leave the trail campouts to his ranch hands. Both of his businesses depended on him not screwing up the finances.
He hadn’t taken two steps toward the bathroom than the phone beside his bed burst to life with an ear piercing ring. He scowled and considered for a second not answering, then reached for the receiver. “Weatherford Ranch, Drew speaking.”
“Hey, Big Bro,” Mandy chirped happily in his ear. “I can’t believe I caught you at the house.”
Drew held the phone to his shoulder and tugged on a pair of briefs he pulled out of the dresser. Sleeping in the buff was one thing, talking to his little sister while naked was another. Uncomfortable. Speaking of uncomfortable, there was something in her too-cheery tone that put him on guard. “You back in the states for a while? Coming here to the ranch?”
“Hawaii is one of the states, Bro,” she answered with the same chuckle she always gave him.
“Whatever,” he said with his usual annoyance. “As I said, are you coming here for a visit? You haven’t been here in months.” He hated that she worked as a flight attendant for Hawaiian Airlines based out of California, mainly because it kept her so far from home. He’d rather see her settled down somewhere much closer, not constantly risking her pretty neck flying in one of those big metal birds.
“Actually I am on my way there, as soon as our flight leaves anyway.”
His mind was still a bit foggy, but he caught a word that concerned him. “Our? Are you bringing home a beau? Some potential fiancé for me to check out?” It annoyed him that she tended to flit from one boyfriend to another. “I’m ready for nieces and nephews, you know.”
She laughed merrily again. “You’re such a hoot! Trust me, Bro, when I find the man I’m ready to settle down with, I won’t bring him to the ranch for you to rake over the coals and deem him worthy.”
Drew could almost see her rolling her eyes at him like she was prone to do when she thought him being ridiculous. He wasn’t being ridiculous. They didn’t have any other family around most of the time. Since their parents had sold him the ranch five years ago, they’d become world travelers. He didn’t even like to think about all the time they spent flying around, risking their lives. He seemed to be the only one in the family that worried about things.
“So who’s coming with you?” He glanced at the clock, knowing he didn’t have time to worry about anything right now. “I hate to say this, Sis, but I’ve got to keep this short. I’m running way behind already.”
“You’ve been staying up late again, haven’t you? Working hard all day with ranch stuff, dealing with your foundation, and then working harder on the accounts at night.” Before he could answer, she said cheerfully, “I’m solving that little problem for you.”
His stomach knotted with dread. “What are you talking about?”
“Tanya has agreed to take over the books and help manage the ranch office business.”
He froze, blinking, remembering. Five foot two or three, blonde hair that fell in a silky wave around slender shoulders, big blue eyes that seemed to twinkle with mischief, body begging for a man’s touch, and sassy. She’d been the exact opposite of what he had expected of an accountant. She’d been the exact opposite of both of his ex-wives, yet he’d felt an instant desire to get real up close and personal with her.
“I thought she had some fancy job with a big accounting firm in Sacramento,” he protested. He didn’t like the way his lower body was reacting to the mere memory of her in those all-but-painted on, black leather pants. Then his thoughts went to the way she filled out a tank top. He hardened even more, so he started up an internal mantra of Not my type, not my type, not my type.
Mandy was quiet a few seconds and he frowned, wondering and worrying. Finally she said, “Let’s just say she needs a change of location for a while.”
He mulled that mysterious answer over as she quickly continued, “We’ll be flying into Denver and driving from there. Probably be at the ranch tomorrow morning. Oh, I’ve got to go! They’re calling our flight number.”
She hung up before he had a chance to say “Hell no!” to having Tanya come to the ranch, thinking she would be working for him. It would be awkward once they were here, but no way was he going to have her stay here and work for him. No way, no how.
“I can’t believe I’m here, in Oz land, in Kansas,” Tanya said, looking out the passenger window of her best friend’s rental Jeep. She’d never been in the Midwest, certainly never anywhere that looked like this. “I thought there were hills, small mountains. Not miles and miles of, well, nothing.”
Mandy glanced in her direction and rolled her eyes before turning back to driving. “Don’t let Big Bro hear you say that. The ‘miles of nothing’ thing. Drew is pretty defensive about his state, especially his acres and acres of it.”
“I wasn’t attacking the place, just saying. . .”
“And I’m just saying you need to look beyond what you can see—”
“Hard to do, when it looks like from here we can see on and on, forever.” Tanya spotted the entrance to a private road and the arched wooden sign proclaiming “Weatherford Ranch.”
“I’ve only been to a zoo a couple of times in my life. I’ve never been camping. Not really that much of an outdoors person. So what am I doing here? Mandy, I’m really out of my big city-loving element.”
Her friend guided the Jeep across the odd steel bars buried in the road at the entrance, casually explaining, “Cattle guard.” She looked sideways for an instant and smiled gently. “You needed to get away for a while, away from El Jerko with the roving hands and God’s-gift-to-women attitude. I still think you should have reported him to the senior partner. Or hired a lawyer to go after his sorry ass for sexual harassment.”
Tanya turned away to look out the side window, thinking about the last time the managing partner at Hewitt, Packert, and Sweltzer had cornered her in the conference room, alone. El Jerko was pretty mild for what she really thought of him. Frankly, she was pretty disgusted with most men right now. Enough that she had broken things off with the man she’d been dating off and on for several months, and he hadn’t been all that upset about the break-up. Which really rubbed her raw. Even he had evidently only pursued her for her body.
“Too much bother, and expense. But I will send a formal letter to the senior partner sometime soon. He’s a good man and deserves to know what a low life he has a close connection with.”
They traveled in thoughtful silence until they reached the main ranch yard. Tanya had seen pictures of Mandy’s family home, but seeing the place in real life was completely different. She sat forward and stared in surprise. “It’s a log cabin! Jeez! A real honest-to-gosh log cabin.” She glanced at her friend. “Okay, ‘cabin’ falls way short. The place is huge. And I don’t remember it being made of logs in the photos you showed me.”
Mandy laughed. “What I’ve shown you before isn’t this house. There was some minor tornado damage four years ago, and Drew had the old house torn down. He personally designed this house. I think he even helped with some of the construction. He’s a real hands-on type of guy.” She sounded very proud of her older brother, as she usually did.
Tanya’s body immediately reacted to the “hands-on” comment. Her buttocks clenched, heated. Why? Surely he didn’t… Surely he wouldn’t… She rolled her eyes and told herself to get a grip. Her thoughts had wandered down a path she didn’t even want to consider.
Still, she’d seen a flash of a stern look in Drew Weatherford’s dark brown eyes during his brief visit to California. It had been a look similar to what settled into her father’s eyes when they were having a disagreement just before… Stop it!
All the mental warning did was to draw forth another image buried in her mind. She couldn’t help remembering Drew’s definite Alpha male attitude. And she remembered noting that he had large, calloused hands. Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! she ordered herself in disgust again.
“Something bothering you?” Mandy asked with a concerned glimpse in her direction.
Tanya felt a blush creeping up her neck and focused again on the massive house as Mandy pulled into the driveway. “Wrap around porch, complete with wooden rocking chairs from one end of the house to the other. Homey.” She hoped Mandy wouldn’t press her about the fleeting spell of weirdness she’d just experienced.
Whether or not her friend would have prodded her for further explanation of her mood, Tanya was “saved” by one of the pair of front doors opening. Drew stepped onto the porch, looking their way. Even though his face was partially shadowed by the black Stetson he wore, she felt certain he wasn’t smiling. From the stiff way he held his shoulders and general silent attitude, she doubted he wanted her here. Great.
“I thought you said he agreed to me coming here to work for him,” she accused, shooting a disgruntled look at Mandy.
Mandy ignored the comment and turned off the Jeep, and then quickly got out. She met her brother halfway between the house and the driveway. He gave her a bear hug that Tanya envied.
As Mandy stepped back a second later, she turned to motion Tanya closer. “Tanya’s really excited, and appreciative, about you giving her this job. Right, Tanya?”
Reluctantly, Tanya climbed out of the Jeep, tried to calm the butterflies fluttering madly inside her, and forced a smile. “All of that,” she knew it was a stupid statement, but it seemed the best she could do while noting how Drew’s expression had once again hardened.
“So, Bro, where do you want her to put her things?”
“Mandy—”
Before he could possibly say something she didn’t want to hear, Mandy speed walked back to the Jeep. “The foreman’s house that Greg doesn’t use. Of course. You’re right, that’s perfect. Just the right size. Private too.” She nodded across the ranch yard, beyond the riding arena in the middle. “Let’s go drop your stuff off.”
She jumped in to the Jeep, giving her brother a pointed look that Tanya noted. “We’ll be back in a jiffy. Why don’t you get us some coffee?”
Tanya glanced from Drew—the employer who clearly didn’t want a new employee—to where Mandy had nodded. Another log home, considerably smaller than the main house. It, too, had a long covered porch with a pair of rocking chairs. Evidently this was rocking chair country. But she kind of liked them and they did look inviting. Except that sitting there would mean she had to look out at the arena that currently was occupied by a couple of cowboys who kept curiously glancing in her direction. And occupied by a giant horse not real pleased with having a saddle on its back. But then all horses were giants to her, as well as something she preferred to be as far as possible from.
Heart racing, she practically threw herself into the Jeep and slammed the door.
“I completely forgot you mentioned one time that you were not fond of horses,” Mandy said apologetically as she quickly backed out of the driveway. “They’re really not as scary as they seem.”
Tanya sat stiffly. “I’m not fond of big animals period.” She looked desperately at her friend. “I can’t do this, Mandy! I can’t.”
Driving toward the smaller house, Mandy said in a calm voice, “You need the job. Drew—even though he may grumble about it—needs your help. You can handle all of this, I know you can.”
Drew stood at the kitchen bar, staring at the cups he’d just placed beside the coffee pot. He’d seen the almost terrified expression that had flashed onto Tanya’s face when she looked at the horses. Living on a ranch with nearly three dozen horses would be hard as hell for her. No way could this deal that Mandy had schemed up work. Nor did he want it to.
He poured a cup of coffee and curled his hand around the cup. Hot. The scent drew him, made him take a quick sip that nearly burnt his tongue. He hadn’t been within twenty feet of Tanya and yet his body had reacted to her, just as it had the last time he’d seen her. Which was absolutely ridiculous.
He hazarded taking another sip of coffee as he mulled over his thoughts. He liked brunettes. She was blond. He had relationships with ranch women familiar with his world, been married to two of them. Of course, neither of those marriages had worked out. Evidently he just wasn’t the marrying kind of man—at least that’s what the last ex had told him repeatedly during their many arguments over his loving the ranch more than her. Women. Hell if he could understand them.
Understand them or not, he liked women. A lot. But his kind of women wore comfortable jeans, boots, and sensible workshirts. He hadn’t really seen what Tanya had been wearing since she’d stayed on the other side of the Jeep, but he remembered her in skin-tight leather pants and a low, low cut top she’d worn when he met her in California. Oh yeah, he definitely remembered that! She’d pranced around in the tempting outfit often enough in his dreams.
Damn! She didn’t belong here. He didn’t think he could handle her being here.
Footsteps on the tiled hallway coming toward the kitchen made him suck in a breath. Every fiber of his being warned him of Tanya’s approach. He was furious with his sister for putting him in this awkward position. She needed her butt warmed but good. He’d only spanked her a time or two in the years that their parents hadn’t been around. Grown woman or not, she’d needed it.
“If you don’t want me here—” Tanya began only to be cut off by Mandy.
“Of course he does. He wants and needs help with the ranch books, and now with his new business’s books, too. Right, Bro?” Mandy said as she strolled over and poured cups of coffee for her and Tanya.
Drew looked up, annoyance in his expression, and then all but gaped at Tanya. Jeans hugged her short, shapely legs. But it was the body hugging, v-necked purple sweater that captured his attention. Good Lord, if she dared to bend over those breasts—those plump, full breasts—would burst free of confinement. Not that he was totally opposed to that happening. He was a man, of course.
She walked over and took the cup Mandy held out to her. Her hair had grown longer, reaching nearly to her waist as it hung free in a cascade of blond waves. Damn if he didn’t want to touch it. Without even trying to, she was playing serious havoc with his sanity.
“I’m really pretty good at my job,” she offered, lifting her blue gaze to his.
Embarrassed about being caught avidly admiring her assets, his tone was rougher than he would have preferred as he said, “So why aren’t you still with whatever firm it was you were with in Sacramento?”
“Drew!” Mandy snapped in outrage.
Tanya’s face pinkened with a blush that instantly made him feel like a jerk. She tilted up her chin and said quietly, “I was temporarily suspended while they investigate a situation between one of the partners and me.”
“You had an affair with one of the partners?” he questioned, not particularly wild about the idea. It also irritated him that an affair was the first probability that crossed his mind.
Mandy slugged his arm. “Idiot! That wasn’t the problem at all.”
He watched Tanya’s face heat even more, sensed she was praying his sister wouldn’t say anymore. He should apologize or something.
Before he could get his foot out of his mouth, Mandy angrily explained, “The scumbag got a little too handsy in the office. Gropped her. On more than one occasion, too.”
Drew stiffened, outraged himself now. “The hell you say!” He looked at Tanya. “Why did you get suspended? That shouldn’t have happened.”
“Damn straight it shouldn’t have happened!” Mandy inserted.
“He’s a partner. I was a staff accountant.” Tanya focused on her cup of coffee. “Besides, it’s no longer a suspension. I quit before Mandy and I left Sacramento. I’m not dumb enough to think they would take me back.”
She met his gaze again, almost in challenge. “Especially when I broke his wrist for touching me inappropriately. Accidentally broke it, although I don’t really regret that.”
He blinked, and then grinned. “Broke his wrist, huh? Good for you.”
Tanya’s warm blue eyes widened in surprise. After a second, she drew in a breath and said, “As your sister mentioned, I really do need this job. At least for a month or so. After that, I’ll try to look for something else.”
He should hold firm to his decision about not hiring her. But, damn, she had the most amazing eyes. Amazing body, too, and that was really a potential problem for him. No, he couldn’t have her staying anywhere around here.
“Drew?” Mandy prodded.
“A month,” he blurted out, wanting to bite his betraying tongue off when he’d meant to say no. He set his cup on the counter and strode toward the back door. “Tomorrow. You can start tomorrow.”
He stopped, remembering that his sister had overstepped the boundaries of his privacy and had shoved this blond walking temptation into his personal space. He met and held Mandy’s gaze. “We’ll talk about this later. In private. I’ve got some ranch chores to attend to right now.” His “talk” would involve mainly applying his hand to her bottom, and he was pretty sure from the way her eyes widened that she understood.
A glance at Tanya caught him by surprise. Her eyes had widened, too. Instinctively he realized that she understood his hidden warning to his sister. Almost immediately he envisioned taking that little blond over his knee, and it wouldn’t take much of a reason for him to want to do that. It wouldn’t take but the barest hint of invitation and he’d want to take that same woman to his bed. Lord a’mighty, he was in more trouble than he’d first thought!