Page 50 of Snowed in with the Rancher

He realized belatedly that he had absolutely nothing to tell her. He'd gotten angry, and where had it led him? To Olivia's side, without a plan.

But at least Deke was gone.

“What did you need?” Olivia pressed.

“How do you know Deke?” he asked, following the concept ofthe best defense is a good offense.

“What?”

He pushed on. In for a penny and all that. “How do you know Deke?”

“I met him about fifteen minutes ago,” she answered warily. “I'm not sure that counts as knowing him.”

“Well, he's…” Tate searched for something negative to say. The fact was, Deke was an all right guy, just not all right for Olivia. “Not very responsible with his cattle. Had a whole dozen wander off his property last summer. Wasn't keeping his fences mended.”

As Olivia stared at him in wonder, he blundered on. “It's a good measure of a man. You can tell what kind of a person someone is by how they treat their animals.” His argument gained steam. “And everyone knows that people who don't take good care of animals won't take good care of kids. I don't want the girls spending time with someone like Deke Harper. He's liable to let them wander right out of the house and into the middle of a street somewhere.”

There. That was a worthy explanation, Tate thought, crossing his arms and giving Olivia the stare he usually reserved for his most recalcitrant employees.

“You have got to be kidding me,” Olivia ground out slowly between clenched teeth, her warm brown eyes snapping with anger. “You saw me talking to another man and came over here to scare him away? What are you, the twins' age? Someone looked at the toy you'd tossed aside, and you couldn't stand the thought of sharing it?”

Tate gaped at her. No, that wasn't it at all. Didn't she care who she was spending time with? Who she might have the girls spend time with? He grabbed her wrist and towed her to the high, wide double doors of the lobby. Looking around for privacy, he tugged at her wrist and headed over to the nearest exit.

“What are you doing? It's freezing out here.” she hissed in protest.

He didn't stop until they'd reached the greenhouse run by the local 4-H group. Yanking on the handle, he said a silent word of thanks as the door opened and he pulled her into the warm interior. “I'm trying to warn you away from men who might not be healthy for the girls to be around.” Yeah. Exactly. That was exactly what he was trying to do.

“I had a fifteen-minute conversation with the man. It had nothing to do with the girls.”

He stepped closer to her, but she held her ground, putting them nearly nose to nose.

“You exchanged phone numbers. I saw you. He was asking you out, right? You were giving him your number so you could go on a date?”

Her eyes widened. “Oh. My. God.”

He narrowed his gaze. Oh my God, what?

“You're jealous!”

A dismissive puff of air passed through his lips, and he opened his mouth to protest, but she cut him off before he could. “How dare you. You can't manage to spend more than a couple hours under the same roof with me, and you're going to get jealous when you see me talking to another man?”

Something flared inside him. Passion. Hot, sharp, and out of control.

He wrapped a hand around her upper arm, tugging her against his chest. He heard the gasp of air leave her lungs in shock.

“I didn't like the way he was looking at you.” His voice was so rough, it sounded more like a growl.

Instead of pulling out of his loose grasp, she seemed to melt into him. “How was he looking at me?”

Their gazes met and locked, electricity crackling in the air around them.

Tate inhaled deeply, the scent of her curling through his chest, down deep inside, feeding the flame that had been lit, oxygen to the fire.

“Like he wanted to do this,” he murmured before he lowered his head.

* * *

Olivia gasped as Tate's mouth sealed over hers. Her heart raced, and one of her hands stole upward to wrap around the back of his neck while the other pressed against his firm chest.

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