Page 25 of A Baby for the Texas Cowboy
“Anders.” It sounded more invitation than protest.
Her body was betraying her. Again.
“We’re not sleeping together,” she whispered, but she was reminding herself as much as him.
“Who said anything about sleeping?”
*
“I’m not surewhy we’re here,” Tinsley balked at the entrance to a large red barn. It was long and low and not at all what she thought a barn would look like—at least it looked nothing like the barns where she had kept her dressage horse as well as her competition horse she’d jumped with—Juniper. The image of the gray horse rose up unexpectedly and for a moment she could almost feel Juney’s nose nuzzle her neck for treats.
It seemed like the past intruded more and more on her present.
Let it go.
“I’m supposed to meet Catalina up at the winery to start to learn more about that side of the operation. I don’t want to keep her waiting. There are so many things I need to put in motion before I can open the tasting room.”
“Relax, she’s not going to expect you to open the tasting room before you’re settled in.”
“That’s her call and August’s and mine. Not yours.”
“Stop trying to pick a fight with me,” Anders said, his tone reasonable while Tinsley felt increasingly frustrated.
He walked into the barn, looking around, and not at her. “August tricked out the apartment and what was salvaged after the accident was moved here. We also have furniture from the house and some things August bought for the house when he remodeled and expanded it last year.” He turned back and smiled at her. “It’s practically a store.”
“Stop playing nice. You’re trying to take over, and it’s not going to work,” she told him.
“I’m only trying to help.”
“Why?”
“Why not?” He grinned in an aw-shucks kind of way that cranked up her irritation.
“It’s my life, and I need to figure things out my own way.”
Anders briefly closed his eyes, pinched his nose.
Did he really feel the need to control things that badly that he thought she was way out of line? How had she not seen this side of him? After her childhood and engagement to John, her radar should be fine-tuned.
Anders dropped his hand, opened his eyes, and took a deep breath. His T-shirt stretched across his shoulders and honed chest enough that she could see muscles rise and fall. She felt heat bloom low. Why was asserting herself and arguing with Anders turning her on?
“Fine.” He held his hands out, palms spread. “Pick what you want and I’ll get some of the hands to help me get it over to the apartment while you work with Catalina and August to learn more about the vineyard.”
“You don’t have to set up my apartment,” she said automatically.
“Yeah, because I’m the jackass who’d drive away while the mother of my child drags furniture up a steep flight of stairs.”
He did make her sound like an uptight shrew.
“Or maybe you think I’d head over to the Last Stand saloon, have a beer or two with my buddies while you haul your furniture into town, balancing it on your head while you race that sexy speed demon bike on gravel ranch roads.”
Now he was just trying to make her seem ridiculous. Maybe make her laugh. She’d seen him defuse quite a few tense situations between bull riders, cowboys and fans. Did he really think she was being purposely difficult? She felt like she was trying to survive in this new world.
“You just keep trying to take control.”
He closed the distance between them. Reached out to touch her but then put his hand down. Tinsley, who’d been waiting for his touch—her body already warm and tingling and needing—leaned toward him, her eyes drifting shut as if to give her sense of touch free rein. She inhaled deeply catching his warm, masculine scent and longing swept through her.
“I just want to help, Tinsley. I need to help. I’m not trying to control you.”
