Page 3 of Our Sweet Destiny
Chapter Two
“WHERE’RE YOU HEADED?” Treat, Rex’s oldest brother, hollered as Rex hooked up the horse trailer.
Treat owned upscale resorts all over the world, and until he’d fallen in love with Max Armstrong, a woman he’d met at their cousin Blake’s wedding, he’d traveled eighty percent of the time, negotiating deals and conquering competition. Rex had watched Treat change and adapt his life to match his newfound love. Within a few short weeks, he’d hired corporate underlings to take over much of his traveling, and he’d decided to put down roots in Weston and help Rex and their father on the ranch.
Rex was glad for the help, and Treat was a good man. They were long past the angst he’d felt about Treat taking off after college to start his resort empire, leaving Rex to hold down the fort at home. And even though they’d confided in each other many times over the years, Rex held his tongue when it came to admitting exactly whom he was helping that chilly morning. He wasn’t proud to be helping a Johnson—even a beautiful, feisty one like Jade—but how could he leave her stranded? Who was he kidding? His body was still humming from their brief encounter. There was no way he’d turn away—and there was no way he’d give his family a reason to doubt his honor.
“Just helping a buddy out. I’ll be back in an hour or so,” Rex answered, climbing into the smallest pickup truck they owned. He figured it would take him twenty minutes to get to the road that led into the ravine and another twenty minutes to maneuver down the shoreline—if the truck and trailer could even make it.Maybe I should call her own darn family to get her.He couldn’t shake the feeling that he was on the verge of something dangerous, and he couldn’t turn away, either. Rex Braden didn’t leave damsels in distress. No matter who they were.
“Want me to come along?” Treat asked.
“No!” He didn’t mean to sound so emphatic. “Sorry, it’s early. Just get started on the morning rounds. Can you give Hope some water, too? I exercised her this morning.”
“Sure, got it covered.”
THE GRASSY STRIP along the shore was too narrow to take the truck all the way down to Devil’s Bend, but he got pretty close. He wrestled with the lie he’d told Treat. Lying wasn’t something he enjoyed, but if his father found out he helped a Johnson, he’d never hear the end of it. Rex had made the mistake of mentioning Jade’s brother, Steve, after he pummeled Steve in high school for making a smart-alec comment about Rex’s younger sister, Savannah. He’d never forget his father’s eyes turning almost black and the gravelly, angry sound of his voice when he told him that the Johnson name was never to be spoken in their home—And when I say never, I mean never.
He reached Devil’s Bend and slowed his pace before moving around the final curve. Jade spurred a hunger in him that he’d never felt for another woman. It was a risky game he was playing, allowing himself to be in the cab of the truck with Jade. He’d survived his attraction to her for all these years by steering clear of her—and now that he was about to come as close as he’d ever been with the woman he’d secretly pined for, he wondered if he’d be able to behave.
Jade’s voice carried around the bend. “You’re such a beautiful boy. You know I’d do anything for you, even get a ride with that obnoxious hunk of a man.”
Rex’s muscles tensed.Obnoxious?Okay, yeah, he could be obnoxious. It was thehunkpart that gripped him in all the right places.
“What kind of a man treats a woman like that? Huh, Flame? An arrogant, self-centered one, that’s what kind—and he probably has a tiny little thing in his pants, too—spurring on all that anger behind those rippling muscles.”
What on earth was he doing here?Tiny little thing? I’ll show you a tiny little thing!He considered leaving her there, but that would just give credence to her gibberish.
He took a deep breath and stomped around the corner. “Let’s go,” he said.
Jade flashed a victorious smile, telling him she’d known he was there all along.
She looked past him. “Where’s your trailer?”
The way the sun reflected off of her blue eyes, making them appear almost translucent, stole all of his attention. Why did she have to be so pretty? Why couldn’t she be a horrendously ugly woman instead of a skinny little flick of a woman with a wide mouth that he couldn’t help but want to kiss? Standing beside his six-foot-three frame, she was at least a foot shorter than him, even with those fancy boots on.
She narrowed her eyes, and he fought the urge to lean down and take her gorgeous mouth in a fierce kiss, to taste those lips and feel her body melt against him.
“Hello?” she said with an annoyed wave of her hand. “Could you stop ogling me long enough to help me with my horse?”
Aw, hell.What was wrong with him? He shook off the momentary fantasy and grabbed the horse’s reins. All that sexual frustration came out as a grunt and a harsh, “Let’s go,” as he marched off with her horse, as if Flame had been following him all his life, leaving her to scurry after him.
“How far is it?” she asked.
He stared at the ground before him, feeling the poor horse limping behind him. What in the heck was she thinking? She couldn’t weigh more than a buck five. She shouldn’t be out here alone. Anything could happen to her.
“How’d you get the trailer down here? Was it difficult to come down the hill?”
He was so busy trying to calm his desires that his answer came out as a snap. “Just walk.”
She stomped ahead of him then, and he didn’t have to worry about being annoyed by her questions anymore, because as they loaded the horse in the trailer and settled into the small cab, she didn’t say one word.
He didn’t mean to be so unfriendly, but how was he supposed to react? She was so freaking hot, and so blasted annoying. Most women swooned over Rex, and this one…this one was downright pesty. And her sweet perfume was infiltrating not only his senses, but he could feel its delicious scent settling into his clothes. He rolled down his window as they pulled out of the narrow, winding dirt road that led away from the ravine. He navigated around giant potholes and took the ride as slow as he possibly could to protect the horse.
He stole a glance at her as she stared out the passenger window like a sullen child. Her slender nose tilted up at the tip, her cheekbones were high, like his mother’s had been, and her neck was long and graceful.
The left wheel caught on a pothole and her body flew toward him as he brought the truck to a quick stop. She caught herself with her right hand on the dashboard and her left hand clutching his forearm. For a moment their eyes locked, and he swore he saw the same want in her eyes that he felt stirring within him. How good would it feel to lean over and place his mouth over her sensuous lips?
In the next breath, she was tearing herself away from him, breathing fire, her eyes dark as night, as she scrambled out of the cab. She tugged the edges of her shorts down and stomped to the back of the trailer, where she swung the doors open.
