"What about a steady girlfriend?" she decided to ask.

"Don't have one, steady or otherwise. Don't have the time."

She lifted a brow. When did men stop making the time for women? When did men stop making the time for women? She thought they lived for intimacy. She thought they lived for intimacy.

"What about you?" he asked her. "Is there a steady man in your life?"

She thought about the occasional calls she got from Kevin as he tried to make a comeback, as if she didn't know that he and Kim were still messing around with each other. Kim took pleasure in making comments every once in a while to let her know she and Kevin were still seeing each other now and then. "No, like you, I don't have the time."

He nodded. "So, there's really nothing holding us back to do what we need to do to get the matter resolved," he said.

If only it were that simple, she wanted to say. Instead she said, "I need to sleep on it." She preferred not to make a decision right then.

"Okay. In that case would you mind doing your sleeping at the ranch?" Clint asked. "That way, you can check out the place to see if it will work for you."

She'd rather not stay at his ranch tonight but what he'd said made sense. She was used to living in the city. She wasn't sure how she would handle being out in such a rural setting. "Okay, Clint. I'll spend the night at your ranch and will give you my decision about things in the morning."

He tilted his head and looked at her. "I can't ask for any more than that."

Three.

"C an you ride a horse?" an you ride a horse?"

Alyssa glanced over at Clint. Sunlight streaming in through the windshield seemed to highlight his features. It had been bad enough sitting across from him at the diner trying to eat. Now they were back in the close quarters of his truck and everything male about him was out in the forefront again. She moved her gaze from his face to the strong, st.u.r.dy hands that were gripping the steering wheel, and then lower to his lap where the denim of his jeans stretched tight across muscular thighs.

"Alyssa?"

She nearly jumped when he said her name again, reminding her that she hadn't answered his question. "Yes and no."

He glanced over at her and frowned. "You either can or you can't."

"Not necessarily. There's another option-can and don't. Yes, I can ride a horse, but I choose not to."

He gave her a strange look. "Is there a reason why?"

"Yes. What if I say that horses don't like me?"

He gave a half laugh. "Then I'd say that if you feel that way it means you haven't developed your own personal technique of dealing with them. A horse can detect a lot from people. Whether you're too aggressive, too nice, sometimes both. A horse is the most easy going animal that I know of."

"Yeah, you would say that since you tame them," she said, glancing out the truck window and thinking how beautiful the land was getting the farther they got away from the city.

"I'd say it even if I didn't tame them. If you stay at the ranch I guarantee you will develop a liking for horses."

"I never said I didn't like them, Clint. It's just I've been thrown off one too many times to suit my fancy. I know when to give in and quit."

He chuckled. "I don't. And if I stopped riding based on the number of times I've been thrown, I would have given up riding years ago. That's part of it. Learning to ride with the intent of staying on."

Alyssa heard what he was saying but it wouldn't change her mind. The truck had come to a stop and she glanced over at Clint. He was staring at her in a way that had her pulse racing, was making her feel breathless. A brazen image formed in her mind. "What?" she asked in a low voice.

It was as if that one single word made him realize that he'd been staring and when the truck began moving again, he muttered, "Nothing."

It was there on the tip of Alyssa's tongue to say yes, it had been something and she had felt it, too, in the cozy s.p.a.ce surrounding them. As she glanced back out the window, she thought that living on a ranch with him wouldn't be easy. The only good thing was that he'd said he would be gone most of the time. That was good to know for her peace of mind.

"Will your family have a problem with it?"

She glanced back over at him. He was staring straight ahead and she thought that was good. Every time he looked at her, sensations she hadn't felt in a long time, or ever, seemed to unleash inside of her. "A problem with what?" she asked, thinking she liked the sound of his voice a little too much.

"Living with me for a while at the ranch. That is if you decide to do it."

Alyssa sighed. There was no need to go into any details that certain members of her family wouldn't care if she left Waco for good. It was all too complicated to get into and too personal to explain. That was the only good thing about the thirty days. Time away from Waco was probably what she needed. Ruining her wedding day hadn't been enough for Kim. She was determined to sabotage any decent thing that came into Alyssa's life. "No, they wouldn't have a problem with it," she finally answered. "What about your folks?"

He glanced over at her and smiled and that single smile ignited a torch within her. She actually felt heat flowing through her body. "My family is fine with whatever I do. My brother, sister and I are extremely close but we know when to give each other s.p.a.ce and when to mind our own business." He then chuckled and the sound raked across her skin in a sensuous sort of way.

"Okay, I admit when it came to Casey, Cole and I never did mind our own business. We felt she was our responsibility, especially during her dating years. But now that she's married to McKinnon all is well," he added.

"Have they been married long?"

He shook his head. "Since the end of November. Cole and I couldn't ask for a better man for our sister."

Alyssa smiled. "That's a nice thing to say."

"It's the truth. Although we do sympathize with him most of the time. Casey can be pretty d.a.m.n headstrong so McKinnon has his work cut out for him."

"So your immediate family consists of your brother and your sister?"

"We used to think that. My mother was Uncle Sid's sister and she came to live with him at the ranch when her husband was supposedly killed during a rodeo and she was left carrying triplets."

Alyssa slanted him a confused look. "Supposedly was killed?" was killed?"

"Yes, that's the story she and Uncle Sid fabricated for everyone when in fact our father was very much alive. However, she felt she was doing him a favor by not telling him she was pregnant and disappearing. So Cole, Casey and I grew up believing our father was dead."

"When did you find out differently?"

"On Mom's deathbed. She wanted us to know the truth."

Alyssa immediately recalled her grandfather's deathbed confession. He'd revealed that he was her biological father and not her grandfather. It had been a confession that had changed her life forever, one that had caused jealousy within the family-a family that had never been close anyway. "What happened after that?"

He smiled over at her and she knew what he was thinking. She asked a lot of questions. Gramps would always tell her that, too. Thinking of the man whom for years she'd thought of as her grandfather sent a warm feeling through her.

"After that, Cole and I decided to find our father and develop a relationship with him. We knew it wouldn't be easy, considering we would be a surprise to him and the fact that we were grown men in our late twenties."

That hadn't been too long ago, she mused, considering he was thirty-two now. Probably around the same time she had been learning the truth about her own parentage. "Did you find him?"

He gave another chuckle, this one just as sensitive to her flesh as the other had been. "Yes, we found him, all right. And we found something else right along with him."

"What?"

"A slew of cousins we didn't know we had. Westmorelands from just about everywhere. We suddenly found ourselves part of a big family and it was a family that welcomed us with open arms. They've made us feel as if we were a part of them so quickly it was almost overwhelming."

Alyssa studied the sound of his voice and could tell that even now for him it was still overwhelming. He was blessed to be a part of such a loving and giving group. There, however, was one thing she'd noted. He hadn't mentioned how his sister had taken the revelation of the missing father.

"Your sister, how did she handle meeting her father for the first time?" she asked.

A part of her needed to know. She knew how she had handled it when she'd discovered that Isaac Barkley was her father and not her grandfather. A part of her had wished he would have told her sooner. That would have explained a lot of things and then the two of them would have been able to face the jealousy and hatred together. But he had died, leaving her all alone.

"It was harder for Casey to come around and accept things. She'd believed what Mom had told us all those years. She wasn't ready to meet a father who was very much alive. It took her a while to form a relationship with him, but that's all in the past now. In fact she moved to Montana to be close to him. She met McKinnon there and fell in love."

Alyssa sighed. A part of her wished she could find someone and fall in love but she knew that wouldn't be possible as long as Kimberly Barkley still existed on this earth. Kimberly was determined to destroy whatever bit of happiness came Alyssa's way.

"This is the entrance to the ranch, Alyssa."

Alyssa leaned forward and glanced out the windshield and side windows and caught her breath. What she saw all around her was spellbinding. Simply breathtaking. She had lived on a small ranch in Houston for the first thirteen years of her life and had loved it. Then one day, her mother had sent her away to live with her grandfather in the city. That was probably the one most decent thing her mother had ever done in her life.

"It's beautiful, Clint. How big is it?" Everywhere she looked she saw ranges, fields and meadows. She couldn't imagine waking up to this view every morning, every single day.

"If you include the reserve on the south ridge it's over fifty thousand acres. Uncle Sid was a ladies' man who never married and so he left the ranch to me, Cole and Casey."

Alyssa nodded. She didn't want to consider the possibility, didn't want to imagine how it would feel for once to not have to worry about Kim dropping in just make her life a living h.e.l.l. The truck, she noticed, had stopped, and she lifted a brow as she glanced over at Clint.

He smiled. "I want to show you something."

He got out of the truck and she followed and he led her close to a cliff. "Look down there," he said, pointing.

And she did. It was then that she saw his ranch, sitting down in the valley below. It was huge, a monstrosity of a house that was surrounded by several barns and other buildings. There was a corral full of horses and she could barely see the figures of men below who were working with the horses. "It's absolutely stunning, Clint," she said, turning to him. It was then that she became aware of just how close they were standing, of the heat his closeness had generated and how the darkening of his eyes was beginning to stir a caress across her flesh.

She moved to take a step back and his hand reached out to her waist, to a.s.sist her, or so it seemed. But his hand stayed there and his touch burned her skin through the thin material of her blouse. Her gaze left his eyes and moved to his lips, the one part of him that had always fascinated her. The fullness of them made her imagine just how they would feel on hers. She thought they would be soft to the touch at first, but they would become demanding and hungry as soon as they connected with hers.

She wasn't a forward person, but one thing Gramps had always taught her was that sometimes, if it was something you really wanted, you just had to take the bull by the horns. Well, she intended to do just that.

He was bending his head toward her, or maybe she imagined that he was doing so. And just to be sure, she leaned forward and slid her hands over his chest. The first touch of his lips on hers sent pleasure points in her body on high alert and when she parted her lips on a sigh, he entered her mouth in one delicious sweep.

He tasted hot. He tasted like a man. And she settled into his kiss as if it was her right to do so. With their mouths locked together, their tongues tangled, stroked and slid everywhere. And then in a move she would have thought was impossible, he thrust his tongue deeper inside her mouth, causing her to instinctively latch on to it, suck it and stroke it some more. This was what you called total mouth concentration, the solicitation of partic.i.p.ation and the promise of satisfaction. Everything was there in this kiss. And Clint Westmoreland was delivering in a way that made the quiet existence she had carved out for herself the last two years a waste of good time and energy.

The kiss was incredible, she thought, sinking deeper into it. She might have regrets later but now she needed this. Her entire body felt as if this was what she was supposed to be doing. And considering this was the first day she had seen him in over five years, the very thought of that was crazy and...

Clint abruptly broke off the kiss. He drew much-needed air into his lungs and fought the urgent pull in his loins. How had he let this happen? Where was that control he was famous for? Where was his will to deny anything he thought might threaten his livelihood? How had he let this happen? Where was that control he was famous for? Where was his will to deny anything he thought might threaten his livelihood?

He didn't say anything to Alyssa. He just stood there and stared at her while trying to get the rampant beating of his heart under control. Trying to fight the sensations overtaking him. She had been kissing him as pa.s.sionately as he had been kissing her. At first her lack of kissing experience had surprised him, but she was a quick study. The moment his tongue came into play, she'd allowed hers to do the same, and without any hesitation.

"Okay, Clint, what was all that about?" she asked in a quiet tone.

She was staring at him while licking her lips. The intimate gesture made his stomach clench. "I think," he murmured, "that I should ask you the same thing. That wasn't a kiss taken, Alyssa, but one that was shared."

He waited for her to deny his words but she didn't. Instead she turned away from him and glanced back down to look at his ranch house. And before she could ask he said, "I'll promise to keep my desire under wraps for the next thirty days."

For a moment she didn't say anything, didn't make a move to even acknowledge that he had spoken. And then she looked back at him and at that moment a wave of desire, more intense than anything he'd ever encountered, raced through him.

"Can you?" she asked softly.

Holding her gaze, he was having a hard time keeping up. "Can I what?"

"Bottle your desire for thirty days." He watched as she inhaled deeply, drew herself up as if she was trying to take back control of the situation and he saw her eyes go from sensuous to serious. "I need to know before I make any decision about staying here with you."

He frowned. Was she afraid of him? He covered the distance separating them and came to a stop in front of her. Forcing her to look up at him, become the main focus of her attention. "Let me explain one thing about me, Alyssa," he said in a voice that he knew had her complete attention. "You don't have anything to fear if you stay here, least of all me. You set the boundaries and I will abide by them. I don't have a woman in my life right now, nor do I need one. What you see down there is my life. You are my wife in name only. I will remember that. I will respect that. But after the thirty days I expect you to go, just like I'm sure you'll want to leave. I don't have time for involvements. The only thing long-term in my life is this ranch and the running of it and the foundation. Those things are all I need. They are all I want."

At his blunt words she asked, "Then why did you kiss me?"

Clint saw her eyes were flashing and knew she was beginning to take what he was saying personally. "The reason we we kissed each other," he said slowly, "is because of a number of things. Curiosity. Need. Desire. It was best that we took care of all three before we got to the ranch. Trust me, you won't become an itch that I'll be tempted to scratch." kissed each other," he said slowly, "is because of a number of things. Curiosity. Need. Desire. It was best that we took care of all three before we got to the ranch. Trust me, you won't become an itch that I'll be tempted to scratch."

Alyssa frowned, not sure she liked the way he'd said that. Had he found her kiss so lacking that he'd not be tempted to do it again? Kim had always said when it came to men she presented no appeal, or that she wouldn't recognize pleasure if it came up to her and bit her. Clint had certainly made a liar out of her cousin. Under his lips she had definitely recognized pleasure. She had actually drowned in it.

"Now," he said, interrupting her thoughts. "Do you want to go down to the ranch with me or would you prefer that I take you back into town?"

She glared at him. "I haven't made up my mind about anything."

"I didn't say you had. I just want you to have peace of mind in doing so."

Behind Clinton's terse words, she suspected he was low on tolerance. But then she'd come to that same conclusion earlier at the diner. She glanced down the valley at the ranch and then she glanced back at Clint. "I'm still staying at the ranch for the night."

"Then let's go. I've got plenty to do when I get there."

When they got back in the truck and he turned the ignition, she glanced out the window when the truck started moving. She had gotten her real taste of pa.s.sion from the man who was her husband-at least on paper. And she had surrendered without thought or hesitation.

For some reason she sensed a wild streak in Clint, one that he probably didn't even know was there. A wildness she detected, one that had almost come out in their kiss. As far as she was concerned the man had desire bottled and it was fighting to become uncorked. If it ever broke free she didn't want to think of the consequences, the combustion or the fiery, hot pa.s.sion.

And if that happened, was there a woman in this world who would be able to tame Clint Westmoreland? she wondered.

Four.

I nviting Alyssa to spend the night at the ranch wasn't the smartest thing he'd ever done, Clint decided. nviting Alyssa to spend the night at the ranch wasn't the smartest thing he'd ever done, Clint decided.

From the cliff the ranch house looked huge. But when you stood directly in front of it and got a close-up view, you got a clear picture of just how s.p.a.cious it was. He hoped Alyssa would decide that in a house as large as his they could easily avoid each other for four short weeks.

The front door opened and Chester walked out. The man, who for years had been Clint's cook, housekeeper, and if there was need, ranch hand, was big. He stood at least six-four and weighed over two hundred and fifty pounds. At sixty-five he looked intimidating and mean as a bear. Once you got to know him, however, it didn't take long to see he was as soft and easygoing as a teddy bear.

Clint knew that Chester considered himself a surrogate father to the triplets. The old man was quick to brag that he'd helped Doc Shaw deliver the three. For that reason-in Clint's opinion-Chester lived under the false a.s.sumption that he knew what was best for them. He had been the one to convince Clint and Cole to find the father they hadn't known they had, and the one to talk Casey into building a relationship with their father.