The Barons Of Texas: Kit. Fayrene Preston

to her feet and wiped the blood from her lip. “Collect your pay and be off the ranch by noon. You’re fired.”

      Cody groaned again.

      She quickly saddled Dia and led him out of the barn. By the time her weight settled into the saddle, Dia was moving forward. She reined him in, attempting to hold him to a walk. “Easy, boy. Let’s warm up first.”

      She flipped her hair free of her jacket collar, and as they passed the next barn, she saw Tio, one of the ranch’s longtime cowboys, and lifted her hand to him.

      “Kit?” he called out. “What’s wrong? You’re lookin’ like thunder this mornin’.”

      “Just a guy who can’t take no for an answer.”

      “Well, now, that ain’t right, no sir. You want me to handle him for you?”

      “Don’t bother. I took care of him.”

      Free of the outbuildings, she eased Dia into a lope, then gradually into an easy gallop. When she thought he had warmed up enough, she let him run flat out.

      The whole unpleasant scene with Cody could be traced back to her reaction to the news that Des wanted to see her. How incredibly stupid of her.

      Des.

      Where was he?

      What was he doing?

      Why did he want to see her?

      One

      Careful of her split lip, Kit took a sip of the hot coffee, leaned back in her rocking chair, propped her booted feet atop the porch railing and scanned the lake. The breeze rippled across its surface as the sun lit the water silver.

      She hadn’t meant to ride as far as the lake this morning. Normally she let Dia run for only a quarter of a mile, then slowed him to a lope for perhaps another quarter of a mile, after which they would head back to the barn.

      But this morning neither one of them had seemed to want to return home just yet. So she had given in to the need to lengthen her time away from the waiting ranch business and turned Dia in the direction of her small cabin, which sat atop a bluff, overlooking the Double B’s largest lake. She was glad she had.

      Truthfully, Dia never wanted their morning ride to end. As for her, she was still upset about Cody. She cast her mind back on the few times she had been with him. For the life of her, she couldn’t think of a thing she had done to lead him on.

      But… Cody was a relatively new hire and didn’t know her well. And they had been alone….

      She sighed. In retrospect, it had been a mistake to invite him to go with her, but it was over now. Hindsight was a wonderful thing and, in this case, totally useless.

      She took another sip and refocused on her surroundings. The lake cabin was one of her favorite places. As soon as her father had died, she’d had it built, along with a corral and a small barn. It had been one of her dreams. Here there were no phones. Here no one ever bothered her. Often she and Dia would ride out on a summer evening. She would swim and spend the night, then, the next morning, after another swim, she would head back to the house.

      She scanned the lake. Unfortunately, it would be much too cold to swim this morning, and it was time she returned to her work.

      A faint roar disturbed her musings. Curious, she got up and walked to the corner of the long porch so that she could peer around the side of the cabin. The roar was coming from the south, which meant it was coming from the direction of the homestead.

      She shielded her eyes and picked out a vehicle, speeding toward her at what she estimated to be well over fifty miles an hour, raising a cloud of dust behind it.

      She stiffened. Surely it wasn’t Cody. Surely their encounter in the barn had been enough to discourage him. But no…

      It was a truck, she realized, as it drew closer. And it looked like the one her Uncle William had given his stepson, Desmond Baron, when he had graduated from law school.

      Her pulse quickened, and her brow crinkled.

      If it was Des, why would he seek her out here? His message had said he had wanted to talk to her. Was it so important he had felt the need to come after her?

      It had to be him. No man on the Double B would dare abuse a ranch vehicle by driving it that fast over what was little more than a track. But with her Uncle William’s death four months ago, Desmond Baron now owned fifty percent of the entire Baron empire. He could do anything he wanted to.

      With a sigh, she sat her coffee cup on the railing and went down the steps to meet him.

      If Des had been raised in a city instead of on a working ranch, his appearance might have stopped at classically good-looking. But he had been raised on a vast ranch and had conquered most of its jobs by the time he was fourteen. With time, the rough, outdoor life had branded him with a ruggedness and sexuality that seared as hot as the West Texas sun. His thick, dark brown hair was styled away from his brow and in short sideburns in front of his ears. His brown eyes were as sharp and all-seeing as a hawk’s.

      With the force of his intelligence and personality, he had the ability to dominate any situation, whether it was in the courtroom, where he had earned a reputation as one of the toughest, smartest defense lawyers in the country, or on the ranch, where every hand viewed him with respect. He was as hard as the plains on which they had both been reared, so what did he want with her?

      As he climbed out of his car, her heart somersaulted. She hadn’t seen Des since the reading of the will, which had occurred right after Uncle William’s funeral. Now his jeans wrapped his lean hips and long legs like a Christmas present. His boots were well worn, and beneath a sheepskin vest was a beautiful pine-green sweater. It looked hand-knitted, and she couldn’t help but wonder if a woman had made it for him. The home where he’d been raised sat less than a mile from hers, and she’d had countless opportunities to watch him from afar, starting when she first became aware of him as a little girl. There had always been women in his life. Gorgeous women who seemed willing to do anything for him. She’d never liked any of them, not that it mattered.

      His scent of leather and spice came to her on the breeze as he stopped in front of her. Funny. From the first time she had been this close to him, though she had tried her best, she had never forgotten the way he smelled. Or anything else about him, for that matter. “Good morning, Kit.”

      “Good morning.” His sharp brown eyes seemed to cut to her very heart, and his deep voice resonated inside her. No wonder he won the majority of his cases. Just last week she had read that his latest trial had ended with a victory for his client. Most of the trials he conducted ended the same way. Opposing lawyers rarely had a prayer against him. “What are you doing out here?”

      He paused, his gaze touching on her red hair.

      “You really should have a phone installed out here.”

      It didn’t escape her that he hadn’t answered her question. “Usually I’m not here that long.”

      “Still, in case of an emergency, you should carry a cell phone.”

      His tone was mild, not dictatorial or judgmental. Nevertheless, she instinctively defended herself. “It’s not like I’m out here all the time.” She swung an arm to indicate her surroundings, causing her jacket to shift partially open and reveal her sweater. His gaze dropped to her breasts, and she silently cursed as she felt her nipples harden. “Besides, the ranch isn’t going to fall apart if I’m gone for a few hours now and then.”

      “Actually, I wasn’t thinking of the ranch. I was thinking about you. What would happen if you had an accident and needed help?”

      She slipped her hands into the fleece-lined pockets of her jacket. “My managers know where the cabin is, along with my routine. If I was missing for more than a few hours, they’d come straight here.”

      “What happened to your lip?” he asked, causing her to take a quick mental