Slow Hand (Hot Cowboy Nights, #1)(9)

“But you said you hate ranching.”

“It’s a damned hard way of life, thankless, and never ending. What’s not to love?” He smirked. “I don’t really hate it, but it doesn’t run thick in my blood like it does with Dirk.”

“You talk more about your brother than about yourself,” she remarked.

He shrugged. “Not much to tell. Raised here then studied law at the University of Colorado.”

“That was surely the Reader’s Digest condensed version,” she remarked dryly.

“What else do you want to know?”

“Why did you choose law?” she asked.

“Seemed practical…and more profitable than ranching.”

“Has it been?” She wondered given the vehicle he drove.

“I do all right.” He shrugged. “But I would have done a lot better had I stayed in Denver or gone east. I was offered a job with a big firm in Boston, but like an idiot, I came back home.”

“Why did you turn the job down? Were you homesick?”

“Dirk’s injuries had a lot to do with it, but I s’pose you can take the man out of the mountains but can’t take the mountains out of the man.”

“But you’ve just said you want to sell out. If you didn’t wish to settle here, why’d you come back at all?”

He stared straight ahead and seemed focused elsewhere. “Not all folks are meant to settle down.”

True enough. In her experience cowboys were notoriously unreliable, generally unfaithful, and rarely capable of settling at all. Wade was past thirty and she hadn’t seen a ring, or sign of one on his left hand—not that she had any interest. Looking was simply a habit she’d formed after a nearly disastrous mistake. His name was Clint. Tall, lean, and swaggering with piercing gray eyes like his Hollywood namesake. They’d lived together for six months before she’d discovered he had a wife and kids. Cowboys seemed to have a franchise on two-timing.

“Besides,” he interrupted her mind’s ramblings, “there’s no reason for me to stay here once I’ve convinced them to unload the ranch.”

“What then? What do you want?”

His gaze left the road and roamed over her with a look that heated her insides. “Right now? I can think of lots of things. Unfortunately, none are compatible with driving.”

She scowled. “It was a serious question.”

“What makes you think I’m not serious?” His gaze returned to the road.

“What makes you think I’m interested?” she rejoined, intently studying his profile.

His mouth tugged up at the corner. “You are. I feel it and you do too. It’s why you’ve been so riled up from the very start. You don’t like that you’re attracted to me.”

“Keep on dreaming, cowboy.”

He laughed, a warm sound that reverberated through her.

Nikki snorted. “I don’t go for players.”

His smile vanished. “I’m not a player. A flirt maybe, but not a womanizer. There’s a huge difference.”

She set her jaw. “I’m neither convinced nor interested.”

“Give me time and I’ll change your mind. You’ll see. No woman can resist my charm. I’m a legend.”

She snorted. “In your own mind maybe.” He was pretty hard to resist—except that he knew that too. His presumption served to shore up her defenses.

“You’re just fighting yourself right now, which only makes the prospect even more enticing. Men always like a challenge.”

Her throat felt suddenly thick. He was right. Taunting him was reckless as hell but for some reason he made her feel a bit reckless. “This conversation isn’t going anywhere.”

“We can take it wherever you want,” he replied. “I aim to please.”

Given that cue, Nikki abruptly changed the subject. “You still didn’t answer me. If you don’t want to be here, what do you plan to do?”

“That’s a damn good question that I’m still trying to answer. I don’t know. I may move back to Denver. There’s an expectation that I’ll eventually take over the firm there.”

“You mean from Evans?”

“Yeah. He only practices part-time in Bozeman, commuting as needed for the biggest clients. He only comes up for the big ranch deals his daughter reels in. I hold down the fort here the rest of the time and handle the smaller stuff. He’s looking to retire altogether in a few years.” He glanced in her direction. “Hungry?”

The mention of food made her stomach growl, an embarrassing reminder that she hadn’t eaten since lunch the day before. “I am as long as you’re buying,” she replied with a cheeky grin.

*

They pulled into a truck stop on Highway 287 just into Madison County. Wade stopped her as Nikki reached for her door. “No, wait, Mama would have my hide.”

“And they say chivalry is dead?”

“Not if your mother’s a Southerner born and bred.”

“I promise you’d still be a novelty where I come from.” She laughed as he helped her step down from the truck, but secretly luxuriated in his attentiveness.

He gave her that heart-stopping grin. “Are you referring to my old-fashioned manners or my legendary charm?”