Taking Charge Page 9

  He didn’t realize he’d grunted until Wyatt said, “If you let yourself get worked up this early, you’ll be a wreck by the time you’re actually dating. Let her come to you.”

  David could have denied his level of interest in Lucy, but he didn’t see the point. Wyatt cared about Lucy and had known her a long time. His opinion wasn’t one to be carelessly dismissed. David leaned a hip on the porch railing as he continued to look at Lucy’s house. “I gave her space the first time, and she went off and got engaged.”

  Wyatt laughed. “You’re not afraid to tell it like it is, are you? I like that about you. I know Lucy well enough to say she’s not looking to get engaged anytime soon. And she likes you, but that won’t be enough. Women and men aren’t as different as they like to claim they are. They both find it hard to appreciate anything that comes too easily to them. Give the girl some time to pine for you.”

  David glanced at Wyatt out of the corner of his eye. “What is it about me that makes everyone think I can’t do this on my own?”

  Wyatt took a moment to seriously consider the reason before he said, “You’re a good man, David. Those are few and far between. Lucy’s always been a sweet girl. We were all holding our breath when she got engaged to that snake, York. No one wants to see you mess this up, son.”

  “I won’t. Not this time.” David rubbed a hand over his chin and sighed. “I consider myself a patient man, but I don’t want to be out here when I could be in there.”

  Wyatt cackled another laugh. “I remember those days. Don’t you worry, David, I’ve got plenty of boxes for you to unload from the last truck run. Come on, we’ll feed you dinner for your trouble.”

  Pushing himself off the railing, David nodded toward the house in the back that Wyatt’s family was moving into. “Does your wife make her own biscuits?”

  “They’re so good I would have married her for them alone.”

  David’s stomach rumbled, reminding him that he hadn’t eaten since breakfast. “Then you’d better treat her well, or my sights might turn in that direction.”

  “Try it and you’d live only as long as it took me to find the right corner of the field to bury you in.”

  David’s eyebrows shot up. The man was in his sixties and so was his wife. He had to know he was joking. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  He laughed again and gave David a pat on the back. “You do that. Something tells me you’ll be the same way with Lucy when she’s yours. My daughter-in-law has my son getting manicures and waxing off hair from where God intended for it grow. She might as well geld him. It’s good to have a man’s man around. Hopefully some of you will rub off on him.”

  David let the waxing comment pass. He didn’t want to know. “What you’re saying is that you want your son smelling like he spent the day cleaning out paddocks?”

  Wyatt’s nose wrinkled. “Now that you mention it, I’ll ask my wife to hold supper until after you shower. Let’s get my truck unloaded first.”

  David agreed. What Wyatt had said about giving Lucy some time made sense, and he could use a distraction. He had a feeling that if Wyatt’s family was anything like him, it would be highly entertaining.

  Chapter Seven

  A week later, feeling calmer than she had in a long time, Lucy walked between her piles of inventory and tried to pick the next one she’d try. Her initial embarrassment with them gone, she was taking a much more practical approach.

  There was nothing wrong with a woman enjoying herself as much as a man did, and if these items helped women do that, she was actually doing them a service by making them available. Sure there were some toys in the room Lucy was convinced she’d never use, but she was okay with that.

  She started asking herself what a woman would need to know about each selection and what they would like about it. Once she did that, a classification system easily followed. She was glad the company was new enough that she’d be able to have an impact on how they represented themselves, because she was beginning to get excited.

  The more she thought about it, the more she recognized the flaws in the company’s website. The descriptions read like they were selling computers, and the directions were written in geek jargon the average person would struggle with.

  Lucy now understood why Technically Anonymous Pleasure had looked for a female to partner with. They needed to find a way to convince women like her that their products were not only worth the money but also not cold and mechanical.

  Hiding in her house, Lucy sorted the items from the least intimidating to the most. I was rushing myself when I didn’t have to. She’d valued Michelle’s level of knowledge with toys and guided her to what she thought she’d be comfortable with. I will value my own journey the same way. I don’t have to try everything in this room, but if I decide to, that’s okay, too.

  The founders of the company had taken items people might be familiar with and added a level of technology that needed to be demystified. Most of the toys were for women, but a few were for men. Each night, she would take a toy into her bedroom and document her progress.

  On the first night, she chose a simple-looking vibrator with a chip that synced with an app she’d downloaded to her phone. The app contained short video clips of men, some clothed and some not, talking into the camera. It was designed to allow a woman to simulate having phone sex with a man. Lucy downloaded two videos that walked her through a sexy session of self-exploration. The geeks might not know how to market their toys, but they had obviously thrown money at every detail of production. The men were attractive and sexy, without being creepy. Lucy had watched two videos—one to learn the process, and one to see if it was as good as the first. She came twice, but decided it was easier to orgasm while imagining David than watching a video.

  On the second night, she tried the vibrating panties that synced with erotic reading material. During the sex scenes in the story, the vibrating panties would automatically turn on. It was nice, but perhaps because she was reading, her mind kept wandering to David. As the story heated up, Lucy would find herself closing her eyes and imagining David’s hands on her, David’s tongue replacing the vibrator. Lucy wrote her findings next to the item number.

  By Friday, she’d gone through all the tame options. She wrote to the company and shared her thoughts regarding website descriptions and presentation of the items. By giving a few examples of how she thought they could market the products differently, she felt her confidence grow when they responded positively. Perhaps my degree has not been for nothing after all.

  They needed to take a much more personal approach. Lucy added each product she’d tried to her website and wrote a blog to accompany it. She shared her thoughts about each one, but also started writing short erotic stories about a woman who used the toy. Her stories mirrored her reality. The character she used in each story was a single woman who wanted to be with a man but presently wasn’t.

  The more she wrote, the more her confidence soared. Since her website and her blog were completely anonymous, she didn’t worry about offending anyone. She came up with a pen name and became bolder about sharing what she discovered about herself as she tried each toy. The feedback was instant and positive. Women started thanking her for her candor. Merely by chance, another blogger came across her site and mentioned it to her many followers. Her in-box quickly flooded with e-mails from women who were not only buying the products but also connecting with her stories.

  Lucy was feeling good about herself and her growing business bank account. After only one week, she had made a few hundred dollars. The orders shipped directly from the company; all she had to do was find and engage clients.

  There was only one area she wasn’t feeling good about—she’d avoided David for an entire week. No matter how she spun it, she didn’t like what it said about her. He’d stepped in to help save her ranch, and she’d delivered his money to him via Wyatt. She’d gone to say hello to Wyatt’s family only when she heard David had run to town on an errand. David’s horses
had arrived a few days ago, and she hadn’t gone out to help.

  I’m a coward, sitting in here, hoping if I keep my head down long enough, I won’t have to deal with my feelings. Doing anything I can to keep my mind off a man who probably wouldn’t even be here if he knew what I’m selling. It’s one thing to use a toy or two, but another thing entirely to make selling them a profession.

  I used to face life head-on.

  I’ve been avoiding Sarah because I don’t know how to answer the questions she’ll have about David.

  I can’t tell her how I spent this week or what I’ve been doing to distract myself.

  Or how ineffective it was.

  She found herself watching him from the window while he worked. She’d tried to tell herself being around sex toys had made her ripe for any man, but there were several men working the horses with David, and she felt nothing when she looked at them. Two orgasms a night should be enough to make a woman forget about any man, but that had only made Lucy yearn for David.

  Lucy kicked one of the boxes in her office. This is where toys, even the best of them, fell short. They didn’t have eyes that were full of laughter one minute, then burned with passion the next. The scent of them didn’t make her want to tear off her clothes and taste every inch of them. Nothing in her office would ever pick her up, carry her toward her bedroom, only to stop and take her passionately on the stairs because it had to have her and couldn’t wait. They couldn’t wake her with a kiss or make her breakfast.

  A sex toy, even the best one, would never be David.

  She tried to tell herself David could never live up to the fantasy she’d built around him. For all she knew, he’d be awful in bed. Some men were. Look at Michelle. Her husband is perfectly happy accepting that he can’t fully satisfy her.

  Lucy left her office and locked the door behind her. David is a distraction, and one of the few ways I could mess up something that is finally looking like it might work. If I let him close, let him in, I’ll want to be honest with him. But what if he tells someone what I’m doing? It won’t matter how much money I make; I couldn’t look anyone in the eye. This ranch would no longer be worth saving.

  He doesn’t seem like someone who would say anything, but my track record with reading people hasn’t been that good lately.

  I should be happy that the gamble I took looks like it will work. I should be celebrating the realization that I may actually be good at online marketing.

  But I have no one to tell.

  No one to celebrate with.

  Lucy walked onto her front porch and sat in the swinging chair. David was talking to a ranch hand while they both watched another man work one of the horses in a round pen. As if he could sense her, David looked over his shoulder, and Lucy’s breath caught in her throat.

  He still wants me, and God help me, I want him just as badly.

  He waved to her.

  Lucy hesitated. Their attraction was too strong for things to stay innocent for long. Highly combustible. The only way to not burst into flames was to stay far, far away from the heat source until it gave up and went home.

  Is that what I want? For him to leave? To know that the next time I see him will be at Melanie’s wedding and, likely, with a date on his arm.

  No. God, no.

  Is it just that I’m lonely? I wake up and talk to no one. I go to bed alone. Would I crave him like I do if I were back in the city booked with social engagements?

  I would.

  He was watching her intently with those blue eyes she found impossible to look away from. He’s waiting for a cue from me, a sign that I’m ready.

  I’m not. Not for what we both want.

  All or nothing. That’s how this feels, but does it have to be that way? I could say yes to time with him. I don’t have to give in completely.

  Where would the harm be in a walk together? In dinner?

  Is anything I’m doing worth it if I become some kind of weird recluse whose only companionship comes from devices with batteries?

  Lucy lifted her hand and waved back. David said something to the man beside him and started walking toward her. This time, Lucy didn’t run. She stood and met him on the top step of her porch.

  He stopped at the bottom step, rested a foot on it, removed his hat, wiped his forehead with his sleeve, and then held his hand out to her. “Come see what I do for a living.”

  Lucy bit her bottom lip and let her eyes wander over him. He was covered with dust, but she doubted there was a woman in Texas who would have minded. The simple act of raising his hand in her direction flexed the powerful muscles in his arm and shoulder. He was ridiculously handsome, but without the air of conceit that usually came with such good looks. She looked him over hungrily. No man should fill out a pair of jeans as well as he did. As soon as she realized where her gaze had settled, she raised her eyes to his and blushed. Her hesitation lasted long enough that most men would have dropped their hand, but David didn’t. His eyes danced with humor that made it impossible for her not to smile back at him. She finally placed her hand in his and said, “I’d like that.”

  Another man might have asked her why she’d hidden from him all week or rushed to apologize in case he’d offended her. David did neither. He acted as if their last awkward conversation had never happened, and Lucy was grateful.

  As they walked together, he kept her hand in his. A week earlier, Lucy would have pulled away. Today, she let herself enjoy the pleasure in that simple touch.

  That is what I have missed. When was the last time someone held me? Touched me? Cherished me?

  He led her to a round pen where a young man with red hair was standing in the middle with a lead line, encouraging a horse to circle him. “That’s Lucas. He’s helping me not only with the horses but with the new men I hired. Ask ten cowboys how to train a horse and you’ll get ten very different answers. I don’t break horses; I gentle them. What men do on their own time with their horses is none of my business, but any man who works with me will follow my philosophy.”

  Lucy looked the large horse over. If she had to guess, it was around five years old and still wild. “Is that a mustang?” To a cattle rancher, mustangs were direct competition for resources. Government land was leased to ranchers, and the time they were allowed to graze their herds on that land was often dictated by how much the wild mustangs grazed an area. In the past, the mustangs were culled through hunting, but animal protection organizations had made that illegal. Now many of them were rounded up and kept in holding facilities where they spent the rest of their lives in large overpopulated paddocks. Lucy’s father had often said what people do out of kindness is often a cruelty of its own.

  “It is. This one is a quarter horse mix. As you likely know, so many breeds have been released into the wild that mustangs now can be any pedigree. Their only commonality is their wildness.” David watched the horse as it trotted around the young cowboy.

  “My father never had much love for them.”

  David looked down at her with that accepting, patient look of his. “I can understand why he’d feel that way, but these horses were brought to Texas by people. Some lines have run free for hundreds of years. Some came to it more recently, but still by no fault of their own. They aren’t vermin to be exterminated. They are spirited, beautiful creatures who are healthier and more intelligent because they are bred and survive by natural selection. They deserve a chance to be valued, and I give them that every time I send one home with a family.”

  I sell high-priced sex toys and am working my courage up to try some of the multi-motored advanced ones. That’s practically the same thing, right?

  Lucy closed her eyes briefly and groaned. I always considered myself a good person. No one’s perfect, but I’ve always tried to be kind to others and not shy away from my responsibilities. David is a whole different level of good.

  She opened her eyes and pulled her hand free from his. “I should get back to my office.”

  David blocked her ret
reat. “Mason will be in Fort Mavis this weekend. He and Chelle will be there. Sarah asked if you were going. I said I had no idea. Mason must really want us both there, because he said he’d have a private plane waiting for us at the airfield tomorrow morning.”

  “Oh, that’s really generous of him, but I can’t . . .”

  “Don’t let me be the reason you don’t go. I don’t mind driving back.”

  Lucy met his eyes and was instantly sorry she did. He was being sincere, and she felt lower than low. He would actually drive all the way to Fort Mavis and let her take the plane. He was that fucking nice.

  I should tell him the truth about how I’m saving the ranch. Let him see that although he’s vying for sainthood, I’m quickly slipping in the opposite direction.

  “Take the plane, David. If I decide to go, I’ll make the drive. I’ve done it before.”

  He kept her corralled against the round pen and leaned down so his lips hovered just above hers. “Are you afraid to fly?”

  She swallowed hard. “No.”

  He ran a hand lightly down her arm, sending shivers of pleasure through her. “Then what is it? Are you afraid if we’re alone, you won’t be able to keep your hands off me?”

  Yes. “That’s ridiculous.”

  “Then say yes. There’s no reason you and I can’t share a private plane ride to see our closest friends, is there?”

  His voice. His touch. The promise of his lips on hers. Lucy was helplessly mesmerized. “I guess you’re right.”

  “I am,” he said with a slow, sexy smile.

  Striving to hold on to some semblance of sanity, she said, “We have to be back by Sunday night. I have a conference call scheduled.”

  His breath tickled her cheek. “How is your business going?”

  “It’s coming—” She blushed at the double meaning that was accurate. “It’s coming along. I’ve already generated some revenue. Not enough to break even, of course, but I’ll get there.”

  “That’s great. New businesses are tough. I bet you’re working all hours of the night right now.”