Page 22 of Falling for the Maverick

Lucas considered refusing Michelle’s suggestion but realized he might regret walking away from her. Walking away before he discovered why she was so different from the other women in his past and why he found himself so drawn to her.

He lowered his head and brushed a kiss over her parted lips. “Okay, bae. We’ll see each other in secret.”

Michelle placed her hands on his chest. “It’s going to be fun,” she whispered, smiling. “Right now I’m not looking for a commitment, but I’m more than willing to take whatever we’ll share one day at a time.”

Lucas wanted to tell her it could be fun but also potentially dangerous if anyone were to find out what they were up to. “We’re going to have to plan out in advance where we want to go.”

She nodded. “There are a few new restaurants in town where we can accidently run into each other whenever we’re downtown.”

“I’ll leave it to you to plan our Tenacity clandestine rendezvous, while I figure out where we can go outside of Tenacity,” Lucas said. He kissed her again. “Get home safe.” He waited until Michelle drove off in the Jeep, then walked to his own parked car.

I’m losing it. I just agreed to sneak around to see a woman I should be dating openly and whoever doesn’t approve of it be damned. Dad’s right. There is something seriously wrong with me. I’m acting like a teenage boy who has the hots for a girl and is willing to do anything to get her to go out with me.

Michelle claimed it was going to be fun. Maybe for her. Lucas knew it was going to be torture for him. He found himself already fantasizing what a relationship with her could look like. He considered inviting her to dinner or cooking for her at his place. He knew she was an accomplished rider, so they could go riding together either on the Circle C or at his ranch. And she’d said she loved animals, so he could see her bonding with Flash.

Yeah, torture.

Lucas drove back to the ranch to find Flash sitting on the porch waiting for him. “Hey, buddy. I’m back.” He opened the door, then glanced back at his pet. “You coming in or staying out?”

Flash didn’t move.

“Suit yourself.” There were nights when the mastiff preferred to sleep in the large bed in a corner of the porch, and then there were nights when he’d whine and bark to come in.

Lucas left his hat on the table next to the front door, then hung his jacket on a coat-tree before he sat down and took off his boots, leaving them on a mat. Walking on sock-covered feet, he entered the large ultramodern kitchen and brewed a cup of strong black coffee. When the brewing cycle ended, he added a generous amount of brandy to the coffee.

When Michelle had asked him if he needed something stronger than beer, he hadn’t thought so. But now he did. He only hoped the brandy would help him to dull his senses enough so he could go to sleep and forget the harebrained, asinine scheme he’d agreed to.

Chapter Six

Michelle woke feeling as if she hadn’t slept. She was trying to convince herself that dating Lucas in secret was best for them, when in reality she knew it was immature and risky if their families uncovered their subterfuge.

What she didn’t understand was why Aaron didn’t want to see her happy after what she’d gone through with her ex.

She combed her fingers through her hair, holding it off her face. Maybe she should’ve defied her brother and dated Lucas openly. She wanted to get back into dating and enjoy sharing the things she’d missed over the past two years. Her head might know that Lucas was the wrong person to start with, but her body—and increasingly her heart—insisted otherwise.

Smothering a moan, she got out of bed and went into the bathroom. It was Saturday, the daycare center was closed, and she had the whole day to do whatever she wanted.

And the first thing on her agenda was to go riding. She needed to feel the wind in her face to clear her head. When she came back, she would try to make a key lime pound cake. There was another recipe she wanted to try on her to-do list: stuffed pork chops with chorizo cornbread stuffing. She was lucky to have found the sausage in the meat section at Tenacity Grocery.

After showering, she towel-dried her hair, then using a wide-tooth comb, she styled it in a low ponytail. Donning jeans, a bulky pullover sweater, denim jacket, boots and a flat-brimmed slouch hat, she left the house through her private door.

She drove to the stables and parked next to Tristan’s pickup. She routinely kept her saddle at the stable instead of storing it with the other riding equipment in the building designated for saddles.

Michelle walked in and saw Tristan, shirtless, sitting on a bale of hay while talking on the phone. She couldn’t overhear what he was saying because of the decibel-shattering sound of hip-hop filling the stable. It was obvious he’d turned up the music so no one could overhear his conversation.

Michelle smiled and waved to him as she walked into the tack room to get her saddle, pad and front and back cinch. When she came out, the music was quieter, and Tristan had finished his call.

He took the saddle from her. “Why didn’t you wait for me to carry these for you?”

“You were on the phone. I didn’t want to disturb you.”

“I could’ve always called back,” Tristan said. “Are you taking Miss Boop out this morning?”

Michelle smiled. “Who else?” Tristan had a calming zen-like presence. It was the reason their father always asked him to go along on business negotiations.

“She’s in the corral. I’ll saddle her for you. By the way, we missed you at breakfast this morning.”

“It’s the weekend, so I decided to sleep in.”