Ecstasy in Elk's Crossing (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) by Robin Gideon Page B

straddled a barstool. “But then you look sweet every night. That must be why you had yourself a Peeping Tom when we pulled into the parking lot.”
    Katie frowned. “Peeping Tom?”
    “Yep. I pulled into the lot, and he was standing at that window over there, lookin’ on in.” The foreman shrugged his broad shoulders and tipped his straw Stetson back on his head with a forefinger. “I hit him with the headlights, and he run off like a scared jackrabbit. Don’t suppose you’d know who it is?”
    “No,” Katie lied. Her first instinct was to do whatever was necessary to keep the McGowans and David separated. “How would I know?”
     
    * * * *
     
    “She’s not going to show up.”
    Aaron looked at Garrett and replied, “Yes, she will. She’s only late because of work. Sometimes that takes a while.” He was standing near the fireplace at the ranch, a cold can of beer in hand, trying to pretend he wasn’t as anxious as the rest of his brothers. “Katie said she’d come here, so she will.”
    Garrett, young and impetuous, shook his head emphatically. “No. When the boys from the Square-B showed up, she got spooked. Real spooked. She was going to be ours, and we were going to be hers, but now she’s spooked, and she’s not going to want anything to do with us.”
    “You’re young and in love,” Aaron replied. “That clouds your thinking.”
    “And you’re old and in love, so that makes you thickheaded.”
    “Thirty-two,” Aaron said, a smile tugging at his lips, “isn’t really all that old.”
    The look he received from his kid brother suggested otherwise.
    A window-rattling crash of thunder followed a bright white bolt of lightning by a split-second, and all the men in the room flinched. The thick, black clouds had rolled in from the west as the sun had been setting. A few minutes before midnight, the rain had started, not too heavy at first, though the deluge soon followed. Thunder and lightning came with the downpour. Now the storm seemed to have settled over Elk’s Crossing, the rain coming in sheets.
    “This storm’s a bad one,” Blair said. “Do you think that’s what’s keeping Katie home?”
    Aaron walked to the window and looked out. The rain-streaked glass gave a distorted view of the land surrounding the homestead. Only the lightning cut through the fathomless darkness of the foothills. The Circle-Square-Circle Ranch was miles from anything that might be construed as a streetlight, so he did not at first realize that a vehicle had pulled up close to the house until the driver’s side door opened, and the dome light came on.
    “She’s here!” Aaron exclaimed. “I knew she’d come!”
    “Oh, she’ll come, all right,” Blair murmured ambiguously under his breath.
    Aaron hurried to the front door of the ranch house, followed by all three of his brothers. He opened the door just in time to let Katie hurry inside. She wore a tan raincoat, which she had pulled up over her head. Her shapely legs were exposed to midthigh.
    “Come in,” Aaron said, throwing the door open wide and stepping aside so that Katie could run in. “Let’s get you out of the rain.”
    Blair added, “Welcome once again to the Circle-Square-Circle Ranch.”
    Katie slid the trench coat properly down around her shoulders and smiled broadly as she patted her blonde hair into place. In her blue eyes, Aaron thought he saw happiness tinged with nervousness.
    “This is my first North Dakota storm,” Katie said, stepping deeper into the ranch house, the stiletto heels of her shoes clicking softly against the polished wooden floor. “Are thunderstorms always this violent in the mountains?”
    “The mountains don’t get it as bad as the foothills. We’re in the foothills.” Aaron was certain he’d never seen anything lovelier than Katie, standing at the entrance to the great room. Softly, he added, “I was afraid you wouldn’t come.”
    Katie walked to the center of the room. She looked at the big,