Montana Sky

right. I’ve been getting calls from the vultures.”
    He smiled a little. “Developers?”
    “Bastards jumped right in. They’d give me the moon and the sun to sell the land so they can break it up, make a fancy resort or fucking vanity ranches for Hollywood cowboys.” If she’d had fangs, they would have been gleaming. “They’ll never get their fat fingers on a single acre of Mercy land while I’m standing on it.”
    Automatically he began to knead her shoulders. “Sent them off scalded, did you, darling?”
    “One called just last week. Told me to just call him Arnie. I told him I’d see him skinned and staked out for the coyotes if he set a foot on my property.” The corner of her lip quirked. “I don’t think he’ll be coming by.”
    “That’s the way.”
    “Yeah. But the other two.” She turned, looked out again at the snow and the hills and the land. “I don’t think they understand yet just how much money’s involved, what thosejackasses’ll pay to get hold of a ranch like this. Hollywood, she’ll figure it out sooner or later. And then . . . they’ve got me two to one, Ben.”
    “The will holds the land for ten years.”
    “I know what it said. But things change. With enough money and enough pressure they could change quicker.” And ten years was nothing, she thought, in the grand scheme of things. Her grand scheme to turn Mercy into not one of the best but the best. “I can’t buy them out after the year’s up. I’ve figured it every way it can be figured, and I just can’t. There’s money, sure, but most of it’s in the land and on the hoof. When the year’s up, they’ll own two-thirds to my one.”
    “No point worrying over what can’t be changed, or what may or may not happen.” He stroked a hand down her hair once, then a second time. “Maybe what you need is a distraction. Just a little one.”
    He turned her again, then shook his head. “Don’t go shying off. I’ve been thinking a lot about this since the first time.” He touched his lips to hers, a teasing brush. “See? That didn’t hurt anything.”
    Her lips were vibrating, but she couldn’t claim it was painful. “I don’t want to get all started up again. There’s too much going on for distractions.”
    “Darling.” He leaned down, toyed with her lips again. “That’s just when you need them most. And I’m willing to bet this makes us both feel a lot better.”
    His eyes stayed open and on hers as he gathered her close, as he lowered his head, rubbed lip to lip. “It’s working for me already,” he murmured, then quick as lightning, deepened the kiss.
    The jolt, the heat, the yearning all melded together to swim in her head, through her whole body. And she forgot, when the sensations seized her, to be worried or tired or afraid. It was easy to move into him, to press close and let everything else fall away.
    And harder, much harder than she’d anticipated, to pull back and remember.
    “Maybe I’ve been thinking about it, too.” She raised ahand to keep the distance between them. “But I haven’t finished thinking about it.”
    “As long as I’m the first to know when you do.” He twined her hair around his finger, released it. “We’d better go downstairs before I give you too much to think about.”
    The riders coming in fast caught his eye. With one hand resting on Willa’s shoulder, he stepped closer to the window. “Adam’s back with your sisters.”
    She saw them, and more. “Something’s wrong. Something’s happened.”
    He could see for himself the way Adam helped Lily out of the saddle, and held on to her. “Something’s happened,” he agreed. “Let’s go find out.”
    They were halfway down the stairs when the front door swung open. Tess strode in first. The cold had whipped strong color into her cheeks, but her eyes were huge, her lips white.
    “It was a deer,” she said. “Just a deer. Bambi’s mom,” she managed, and a tear slipped out of her eye as Nate came down the hall from the kitchen. “Oh, God, why would anybody do that to Bambi’s mom?”
    “Ssh.” Nate draped an arm over her shoulders. “Let’s go sit down, honey.”
    “Lily, let’s go in with Tess.”
    She shook her head and kept her hand gripped tight in Adam’s. “No, I’m all right. Really. I’m going to make some tea. It would be better if we had some tea. Excuse me.”
    “Adam.” Willa watched Lily hurry toward the kitchen. “What the hell happened? Did you shoot a