Page 22 of Setup In Montana

His eyes narrowed, his gaze shifting from her face to the hammer in her hand. Dub had been working on the stall door earlier and had left it lying there. “What are you planning to do with that?”

She didn’t answer since they both knew that he hadn’t given her enough room to swing a hammer. Still, she held it between them and met his dark gaze. While Dub’s eyes were a high lake-green pool, Tanner’s were dark like a bottomless sea, expressionless and cold.

“You’ve put some kind of spell on my brother. I saw it when you were working down at the convenience store. He got all goggle-eyed when he saw you behind the counter. I could tell he was taken with you, but I never expected you to take it this far by showing up here.” She started to object that her being here was a fluke. There was no way she could have planned it, but he cut her off.

“You might have fooled my old man, but you aren’t fooling me. You’re not reeling my brother in like some big fish you’ve set your sights on. You’re not the first woman who wanted to marry our ranch and you won’t be the last. I won’t let you trap him.”

Clancy wanted to laugh. He was so wrong about so much. “I don’t want to marry your ranch.”

“Right. Going to tell me you don’t want my brother either?”

She started to answer that when she realized Dub had come into the barn and had stopped only a few yards behind Tanner as if anxious to hear her answer. Neither of them had heard him come in. She wanted to blurt out that she was leaving as soon as the bridge was fixed and she wouldn’t be looking back.

But when her gaze met Dub’s even for a second, the words stuck in her throat. She wasn’t after a ranch, nor did she plan to end up here. But here she was thrown together with this cowboy who had made her want to throw caution to the wind. Dub promised a wild ride, and it was damned tempting to saddle up.

“There a problem, Tanner?” Dub said.

His brother started, surprised to find his brother standing just feet behind him. Tanner turned slowly, pushing away from the stall where he’d had her cornered, and walked away from her. She took a breath, no longer feeling suffocated by his presence and equally relieved that Dub was here.

“You know the problem,” his brother said as he pushed past Dub and stormed toward the open barn door.

Her chest hurt as she felt her heart thunder against her ribs. She looked at Dub and saw fury in his expression. At her? Or his brother? Or both of them?

Now that Tanner was gone, she knew she should have been more frightened while he was threatening her. The man was intense, but what she’d seen in his eyes was hatred. Tanner had a problem with his brother, and he wanted to take it out on her.

“Are you all right?” Dub asked, his expression softening as he stepped to her and gently removed the hammer from her hand. She’d forgotten that she was holding it. He put it back on the edge of the stall.

“I don’t want your ranch,” she said.

He turned to look at her and tilted his head. “Why not?”

She gave him a please-be-serious look. “He thinks I’m trying to trap you.” She watched Dub take off his cowboy hat and scratch his neck with his free hand before putting it back on.

When his gaze met hers again, she felt that familiar stirring inside her. “You know what bothers me? You’re more afraid of me than my brother, who you probably should fear.”

“I’m not afraid of you,” she blurted out, making him grin.

“I beg to differ.” He leaned toward her, stepping into the space Tanner had deserted, but the sensations she felt now were nothing like the ones she’d felt when his brother had stood near her.

She froze, her eyes widening as he leaned even closer. Her gaze shifted from his eyes to his mouth and quickly back. He must have seen what she was thinking, because his grin widened, dimples deep. And she felt again that now-familiar ache for this man.

His green eyes widened a little as if he took her retreat as a sign that he was right about the nature of her fear and he was about to prove it. She’d never been so terrified of a kiss and what it was about to prove. She feared she wouldn’t be able to keep lying to herself about her reaction to this cowboy, and from his look he knew it.

He shifted ever so slightly on his boots. She felt the temperature change in the stall and fought the urge to fan herself or, worse, strip out of the heavy barn jacket he’d given her to wear. He leaned closer, somehow giving her space and yet closing the distance between them until his lips were a breath away from hers.

She couldn’t have moved even if she wanted to. That alone scared her. She wanted this, had wanted this maybe from the first time he’d flashed her that dimpled grin, maybe even before he’d pushed through the convenience store doors and those eyes had fallen on her, taking away her breath.

Clancy knew he moved because she felt his lips on hers, but she didn’t see him move. She felt it, though, just like she did the moment his mouth brushed hers. She felt the sigh rise in her, escaping on a ragged breath as he slowly kissed her. Her body reacted against her will, drew closer as she leaned into him and the kiss.

Her arms ached to encircle his neck to pull him even closer, but before she could, he was drawing back, breaking the feel of his lips on hers.

She blinked, caught off guard since she was just starting to lose herself in the kiss, in this cowboy. She wanted to grab him by his jacket collar and drag him back—until she saw his grin.

When he spoke, his voice was a low whisper that sent a tingle of a thrill through her. “Still afraid?”

Terrified. But she straightened, ready to deny everything, especially that the kiss had shaken her to her core just as she’d feared it would.

“My brother has it wrong,” Dub said. “I’m the one trying to lasso you—not the other way around.” He met her gaze. “How am I doing so far?”