The Rancher's Surrender

looking at a man who was not as she wanted to make him out to be.

He wasn't selfish.

He wasn't sneaky.

He wasn't out to hurt anyone.

And maybe, just maybe, he could indeed be trusted.

Even if he was ornery as a prickly bear at times. 'What does this have to do with the land?' she yelled to Cade, at the precise moment Ty reached over and flicked off the earsplitting, pulsing music.

Her voice echoed unnaturally, and she glowered at the back of Ty's still head as everyone looked at her.

'It has everything to do with the land,' Cade told her. 'If I hadn't found you three lovely ladies, Ty himself would have inherited the ranch.'

Chapter 6

'You could have told me.'

This from Zoe, and as they were the first words she'd spoken since Cade's untimely announcement, Ty considered himself lucky.

'I can't believe you didn't.'

He tightened his hands on the steering wheel as they bumped and rocked in the truck over the rough road on their way back to the house. 'It never came up.'

She gaped at him, shook her head and turned away, staring out the window. 'You're something, you know that?'

'Oh, really? Well, you're not much different.' Anger felt good since it erased any lingering guilt he might have been wrestling with. 'Ever since you came to Triple M you've been staring at me as if I were some sort of bug. A total creep. As if you expect me to hurt you-'

'I'm not afraid of you.'

'I didn't mean a physical hurt.' Arguing with her was like arguing with Ben, who'd been nearly as stubborn as she. Ty had never been able to win a verbal war with him, either, and suddenly he ached so much he was exhausted with it, which made him all the more furious.

He pulled up the long gravel drive to the house and braked. In the confines of the truck, the air sizzled, and he assured himself it was all temper and nothing more. Zoe had been shooting him with mental daggers the entire drive and he'd had enough. 'Look at you,' he said. 'You're braced for battle like I'm the bad guy.'

'If the shoe fits…'

'Tell me, Zoe, what's so bad about me helping Constance?'

She stiffened and he was tired of her silent hostility. 'A woman that could have been your own grandmother? Does helping her make me a criminal?'

She remained tense against the door, as far from him as she could possibly get, but then suddenly it was as if his words deflated her. Her shoulders drooped. She rubbed her temples, her hair falling forward out of her makeshift ponytail. 'God, I always do that. I don't know why,' she admitted quietly.

'Always are a pain, you mean?'

A smile tugged at her mouth, and she dropped her hands from her face to her lap as if she were too tired to hold them up any longer. 'That, too. I meant, I'm always looking for trouble. Delia says it's my middle name.'

'Gee, I don't know what she's talking about.'

'I'm sorry for that.'

'But not for thinking the worst of me at all times, I guess,' he said wearily. She was one of the most irritating women he'd ever met. And the most fascinating. 'Do you have any idea how much you tie me up in knots?'

'Me?' Now she looked up, clearly startled at his unexpected bluntness. 'What do you mean?'

He threw up his hands. 'I don't know what the hell I mean. You have all these thoughts running through your head that I can only imagine, but I'm pretty sure, given your expression, they're not exactly flattering.'

She opened her mouth, but nothing came out. A tactful silent agreement.

Because he couldn't help himself, he shifted closer, lifting a hand to the back of her seat, fighting his sudden urge to touch her glorious hair. 'Yet only a little while ago,' he continued in a low, unintentionally husky voice, 'you were kissing me as if your life depended on it.'

She let out a little puff of breath, a sound that became erotic in the close confines of the car. Of their own accord, his fingers touched her then, just lightly on her cheek, trailing to her ear and sinking into that hair he'd been dying to touch again. 'How do you think that makes me feel, Zoe?'

She swallowed hard, closed her eyes at his touch. 'As confused as I am, I imagine.'

Tempting as it was to just drop her off and keep going, he turned off the engine. They had to work this out, although he would have rather gone back to his own place and buried himself in his own work. Hell, he would have rather gone anywhere than face this green-eyed, auburn-haired beauty he couldn't seem to stop thinking of. 'I want you to understand something,' he said slowly.

'About the will?'

'Yes.'

'About the little fact you didn't tell us you were in line to get this land?'

'Yes, about all that. And more.' He hesitated, willing her to believe. 'It's true, I would have inherited this land from Constance if you hadn't been found. And yes, I would have combined this ranch with my own land.'

'Why the big secret, Ty? Why didn't you just tell us right away?'

In truth, he didn't know. Other than he had never helped Constance for the possible glory. He hadn't even helped her because he wanted her land so badly. He'd helped because he knew what it was like to be frightened and desperate. He'd hated the helplessness of it all, and hated watching Constance fight it.

And why should she have had to, when he had the means in which to step in and prevent it? Bottom line, he had helped because he had wanted to, because it meant something to him to be able to do it, and because it had been the right thing to do.

But he didn't feel like spelling any of that out to Zoe, not when she was so sure he'd done it to get the land.

'Why did you help her find us?' Zoe asked him. 'Why would you do that if you didn't have to? You could have had everything you wanted, and for free. Instead you bought yourself right out of an inheritance.'

She thought he'd had an ulterior motive, which infuriated him. He was angry at himself for letting what she thought bother him, and angry at her for thinking so little of him in the first place. 'How could you understand so little about loyalty and caring when you have two sisters?' he wondered. 'I've seen how close you are.'

She dropped her gaze and turned her head away, but he'd had enough of her escapes and wasn't going to let her get away with it again, not when he needed answers. With a finger beneath her chin, he lifted her face. The signs of her discomfort were there in her flaming cheeks, her flashing eyes, but he didn't let up. 'Tell me.'

Annoyed, she slapped his hand away and made a scoffing noise. 'This isn't about me. I want to know why the big secret. You let us think you were nothing but a fellow rancher, but you were much more to her than that. You were more to her than…' She broke off abruptly, swallowing hard.

'Than what?' He gentled his voice, his temper gone as he realized the truth.

'I don't want to talk about it-'

Too damn bad. 'I was more to her than you?' he pressed. 'Is that it? You're upset because a virtual stranger was in her life when her own granddaughter, possibly you, couldn't be?' He knew he'd hit the jackpot when she flinched as if he'd hit her. Some part of him, a part he'd been holding back from her, cracked open, allowing a rush of feelings to surge through, the first and foremost being a compassion he hadn't expected. 'It's not your fault, Zoe.'

She tried to look away, but he wouldn't let her. 'It's not,' he repeated gently. 'You didn't know where she was, or even that you might have been related to her. You can't blame yourself.'

But she did, he could see it in her eyes, and he realized she wasn't nearly as tough as she thought she was.

'She was destitute,' Zoe whispered, showing more emotion than he'd seen. 'Alone.'