Clockwork Cowboy

Chapter 27

The crisp morning air had woken Nova early. She'd barely slept all night. Nova had been determined to not think of Jese Calhoun any longer. Or the fact that he was just through the wall. But insomnia was unaffected by stern inner dialogue.

Now - with a groan - Nova pulled the large buffalo hide over her head to block the daylight out.

But the movement sent a blast of cold air between the sheets. She lurched out of bed.

When she'd finally managed to push all thoughts of him from her mind and fall asleep, even her dreams had been tormented. Seemingly innocuous objects had morphed into him... He'd glowered at her from every direction. And now she was absolutely exhausted.

Pulling on a pair of moccasins under her simple night dress and covering herself with a felted cream coloured nightgown that fixed in the front by a studded leather belt. Nova slipped quietly from her room. She held her breath as she crept down the stairs, hoping that her empty lungs would prevent her from weighing down creaky planks. The last thing she wanted to do was wake the devil.

Nova opened the scullery door to find her coal range burning brightly, and a pot of water boiling merrily on top. She glanced around in shock.

"Coffee and cream?" Her husband greeted her, his overwhelmingly masculine presence taking up the entire room.

She forced a polite smile. "If you are making one for yourself." Had she married a mountain lion? With her overwrought nerves on high alert Nova imagined she would have woken at even an innocuous snore. And yet here he was banging about the kitchen like a brazen housewife and she hadn't heard a thing. Had she known he was she would have spent the day camped out in her bedroom.

His masculine hands were moulding sweet breakfast tamales, just like they'd moulded her - Stop it!

She needed to think clearly. There wasn't going to be any more mooning about... she was going to unearth all of his secrets. Starting with his origins... Breakfast Tamales? Did that make him Mexican? She didn't have any idea.

Her gaze dropped to his long legs, and well shaped buttocks encased in worn denims. His white shirt opened at the collar - leaving his tanned throat column bare and vulnerable. Arrrrgh! Focus!

Stopping what he was doing Jese moved with catlike grace to the kettle and poured the steaming water into her coffee contraption. "This is ingenious," he said.

"Coffee is important," she said tiredly.

"I couldn't sleep either, " he told her. A devilish look in his eyes. He passed her a hot mug.

"I slept like a log," she lied. Nova hoped that he'd thrashed about all night - crippled by guilt at his intention to rob her of her inheritance.

"Then where did you get those dark marks under your eyes?" His smirk rankled.

"It's hay fever." She felt a surge of jubilance as she noticed the disgruntled look passing across his face.

"I'm going to ride around the boundary today," Jese told her, after a short silence. "So I can see the lay of the land. I've had a few ideas for improvements, but I need to mull it over."

Nova's heckles rose. "Improvements?"

"The Government's got a new policy which could be viable for us."

Incense was quickly overwhelmed by depression. She'd wanted to have a proper conversation about the ranch for years, but neither of her parents had been in their right minds. Her father's state of mind had been self induced, of course. If she'd found the right man - instead of a gold digger - then this would have been welcomed conversation.

The irony that all those years she'd turned down offers of marriage from well mannered and sweet men, in an attempt for independence, when really she ought to have concentrated on not marrying badly. It chafed. She glanced at Jese, his face shuttered and distant. Nova should have seen that he was more trouble than he was worth.

The tiny yap at her feet caught Nova's attention.

"You thought we'd forgotten about you?" He asked, as he scooped the mite up. The pup licked Jese's face feverishly. She nearly flushed with guilt. She had forgotten about the poor thing... Nova noticed the fresh cream on its muzzle, shocked at the sudden change Jese had had toward the animal.

"As soon as his wounds have healed I can put his legs on," she said. "I think I've fixed them." The pup was dragging himself around pitifully.

Jese plopped the pup into an old leather saddle bag. Serving some tamales on a plate he slid it in her direction. "Eat."

She restrained herself from snarling. The last thing she needed was to have some man managing everything from her ranch to her appetite. "I'm not hungry."

"Just eat it." His tone didn't allow for argument.

Warily Nova prodded at one with her fork. Wild berries? Her mouth watered. She tried to eat it as slowly as possible, in case he noticed just how much she was enjoying it. And, she decided, in case he'd laced it with poison.

They ate in silence.

"That's for me," Jese said.

"What?" She'd been so engrossed in her meal that she hadn't heard the horse approaching.

He gulped the rest of his coffee down, and jumped to his feet. Hauling the saddle bag over a shoulder, he made his way to the door.

Nova could see the pup's tongue lolling out. "Won't the puppy be an inconvenience?"

"He'll be fine." Then Jese shot her a suggestive smile, "I'll see you later."

"Possibly." She noticed the discomfort that her answer caused, and felt a surge of power. Nova had no intention of being anywhere near him until she'd figured out how to get out of this dreadful situation. The last thing she needed was for her foolish hormones getting in the way of her common sense.