sweet, quiet, shy Maddie just let them both go, acting as intermediary when required. With just a light touch or small smile, she could melt anyone.
He remembered the sight of them huddled pathetically in a small corner of the dirty, dark patio. Remembered the way his heart had stuttered at the realization it had been him who had inadvertently terrified them.
He’d be the first to admit he wanted them gone, but not by his own hand. And he certainly hadn’t meant to scare them.
They’d been holding on to each other like...they belonged together, that was obvious. The tall, serene, sexy, in-control Delia. The smaller, hauntingly beautiful Maddie. And the rough-and-tough Zoe. She was every bit a looker as the other two, but he doubted she’d appreciate the compliment. She was different, far more unrefined. Her auburn hair was wild, not carefully groomed. She wore little to no makeup, and her clothes...well, she looked as if she’d fit into the hard ranch living just fine. Her jeans were faded and oh-so-snug in all the right places, showcasing a slim yet curvy body that for some reason he couldn’t keep his eyes off of.
Three women; so different and yet obviously they lived together, loved and laughed together. They were a unit.
A small place inside him ached, a place he didn’t visit often, because it only brought great pain. Once upon a time he’d belonged, too. But that had been ten years ago, before his brother Ben had died.
That part of his life was over.
No amount of standing around and staring at these women was going to change that. Nor was it going to change the unrelenting truth—he did want their land with a singular purpose. A purpose so personal and painful he had no intention of sharing it. He’d been only twenty-two when he’d promised Ben a huge ranch someday, and even though Ben was no longer on this earth to enjoy it, Ty never broke a promise. Never.
These three women had ruined Ben’s dream sure as they were standing there staring back at him. Constance had cared for Ty deeply, deeply enough to want to leave her land to him if her granddaughter hadn’t been found.
But Constance had indeed found an heir. Three of them.
No doubt, they were three of the loveliest heiresses he’d ever laid his eyes on, but “lovely” didn’t count for much when he remembered what Cade had told him—this place was all these women had in the entire world, which made Ty’s gut tighten just thinking about it.
He was busting out of his britches at his own place. He raised and trained quarter horses for ranches throughout the entire state, but his place was small and insufficient for his needs. He’d bought it long ago when money had been incredibly tight, just after Ben’s death. It was a beautiful strip of land on the narrow end of the small valley between the river and the mountains. It was lush, green, fertile, and though Ty loved it with all his heart, it was far too small. There was only one way to expand—toward Constance’s property.
Ty had a ten-year promise to fulfill; a painful, unrelenting promise, and to do it he needed more room. He wanted, indeed what he’d wanted since he’d been a little boy starving and struggling on the rough streets of Chicago with Ben, to raise horses. Train them. Sell them. Then do it some more.
He was amazingly successful, but he’d maxed out at his own place, and Ben’s dream was just out of reach.
More land was crucial. Crucial to his promise to Ben, crucial to making sure he couldn’t ever feel claustrophobic again.
Yet how was he supposed to wrangle his dream land away from these women who also needed it? It was all they had, and was he really cruel and selfish enough to get it away from them?
He stood there, wrestling with his deeply woven morals and innate courtesy, as they both reared up and bit him. Across the room, his gaze met Zoe’s, and that strange electric current shot through him, the same one that he’d experienced when he’d accidentally touched her at the door. Looking at her only intensified the feeling.
Seemed he’d also been bitten by the lust bug, sharp and relentlessly. But why for the wildcat Zoe and not one of her infinitely more appealing and nicer sisters?
Delia swept across the room as if she’d lived there all her life instead of ten minutes. “Zoe, why don’t you do me a favor and check out the bedrooms? Figure out the arrangements, will you?” She turned to Maddie. “Sweetie, maybe we should make sure the kitchen is functioning.”
Maddie nodded.
When she was gone, Delia smiled at Ty. “The kitchen, any kitchen, is her favorite place in the world.”
“Do you think he cares, Delia?”
Delia lifted a shoulder and sent Zoe a long look. “Hon, you’re going to get some sleep and then feel bad about how you’re acting.”
“And then you’ll owe me an apology,” Ty added helpfully.
“Don’t hold your breath,” Zoe muttered, making him laugh, which earned him a glare.
“I’ll direct the luggage shuffle with Ty,” Delia said, wisely intervening. “Most of our things are coming by professional movers in a couple of days.”
Ty turned to follow her outside. At the door he stopped and flicked a glance over his shoulder at Zoe.
She was still standing there watching him, and if looks were any measure, she hadn’t taken to him much.
It wasn’t often he managed to tick off such a beautiful woman so quickly. His mischievous streak reared and he winked at her.
Her glower deepened, and he laughed for some reason. Things looked bad, they had his land. But Ty just shook his head and went out into the night, looking forward to challenging Zoe.
* * *
“Move out of the way, Slim, it’s pouring buckets.”
Zoe stood firm in the doorway of the ranch house as though butterflies hadn’t instantly ravaged her stomach at the sound of Ty’s unexpected low, husky voice. “Why should I?”
Ty groaned and lifted his drenched head, shoving back his dark hair. His eyes, the color of the storm wreaking havoc behind him, pierced her. “Because if you don’t,” he said with silky promise, “I’m going to drag you out here so you can see for yourself how icy it is.”
Though she didn’t know the man well, she already knew better than to challenge one of his dares, for it appeared he never spoke idly. He would do as he threatened without qualm. “Fine.”
With resentment, and a good amount of something she didn’t want to analyze, something that made her insides tingle and her head light, she moved back to let him in.
His big body brushed hers purposely, a body she knew from sneaking glances to be hard and toned and powerfully built And wet. He dripped on her clean sweater, the one she’d just changed into after scrubbing the inside of the house all day.
Actually, she’d been scrubbing for three days, and was exhausted, though in truth, most of that exhaustion came from worry. What would they do? For in the light of day, Triple M, deserted and financially stuck, was no more a ranch than their apartment had been. She’d been reading ranching books until late at night, but all the knowledge in the world wouldn’t help without money.
“Wipe your feet,” she said, even as he did it on his own. “And dry off, would ya?”
“Nice to see you, too.” As he slipped out of his soaked jacket, his hard mouth softened and he shot her a grin she knew most would consider irresistible.
Zoe didn’t consider anything about Ty Jackson irresistible. She would have said...cocky. Trouble-causing. Wild.
Which didn’t explain why his crooked smile wormed its way directly to the part of her that was barely controlling her temper, and shattered it. That she was so mad at him had nothing at all to do with how she’d caught him flirting outrageously with one of his ranch hands, who just happened to be a woman. A tall, leggy blond woman named Shirley who looked like a Barbie