Page 14 of Chance (Wild River Ranch #3)

T he longest week of her life!

And that was with her mostly sleeping through the first three days of it.

Today, the gorgeous room she’d been confined to was again bright with daylight streaming through a large picture window. Not that she’d gotten to view the scenery outside the window. No, she’d been in bed. For seven days.

Chance had growled at her yesterday when she’d tried to get up. Growled. Like a bear or something. “You better get yourself back under those covers, naughty girl. With the discussion we’re having as soon as you get cleared by Doc Bradford, you want to be on your best behavior. I promised you.”

“I wasn’t getting out of bed. I was just giving my foot some air.”

“Is that the same as yesterday when I caught you sticking your tongue out at me? I guess you were giving that some air, too.”

She’d blushed to the tips of her hair, but reminded him, “I told you I was licking my lips.”

When she’d accused him of being bossy, he’d grinned and told her to get used to it .

Those first two days, he would check her temperature every hour, lift her from the bed, and carry her to the bathroom. She had thought that was embarrassing until he’d kept walking through the door and over to the toilet.

“Wh-what are you doing?”

“I’m helping you go to the potty.” She wondered why a nice avalanche couldn’t bury her when she needed it.

Yesterday morning, she’d put her foot down. At least, she’d tried. “I do not need you to help me go to the potty anymore. I’m all better, and I’ve been doing it on my own since I was a year and a half old.”

“A year and a half? You’ve been an over achiever since birth, haven’t you, gypsy?”

She’d shrugged and attempted to shove him out of the water closet.

He’d allowed it, thank goodness. “I’ll be right outside the door. Call out if you need me. That’s if you get dizzy or feel sick. I don’t want you falling and injuring yourself.” He winked at her as she started closing the door. “Or if you just want help wiping your bottom.”

She’d slammed the door on his laugh at her horrified gasp. He was such a Daddy.

Today, she woke up alone for the first time. He’d stayed by her side for seven days, but today he’d left a note about riding out to check on the bison in the north pasture and ride the fences.

Even though she’d been encouraging him to get back to his life , she missed him. But his brothers and the ranch hands had been working hard to do everything Chance usually did. And that was a lot.

Then it occurred to her it would probably take all morning. He shouldn’t be back until later in the afternoon. That would give her plenty of time to take a shower and still be able to rest. He would never know .

To be on the safe side, she waited five entire minutes before climbing out of bed.

Tingles ran along the bottoms of her feet when she settled all her weight on them for the first time in a week.

A wave of dizziness almost sent her to her knees.

She tried to grab the bedside but hit the lamp instead, sending it crashing to the ground.

The door flung open. Chance rushed in, coming straight to her.

He lifted her and set her on the edge of the bed.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing, babygirl?

Did you cut yourself?” He checked her hands and arms before carrying her to the sitting area and standing beside the couch.

“You are in big trouble, little girl. Don’t you move an inch.

There’s broken glass on the floor. I don’t want you to get any glass splinters in your feet. ”

As soon as he had her settled, he picked the larger pieces of the broken lamp from the floor before calling Ruby, the family's housekeeper, and told her to send someone up to clean the rest of the mess.

Things became uncomfortable after that. Chance crossed his arms over his chest and glared down at her. “Would you like to tell me what you were doing out of bed? I'm very disappointed in you.”

Well, now she felt horrible. On top of recovering from the flare-up, now she felt guilty.

You should feel guilty. You deliberately disobeyed him the minute his back was turned.

Worrying her fingers, she said, “I'm sorry I broke your lamp.”

“You think I’m worried about the lamp? You could have seriously hurt yourself, little one. That’s what worries me. I have to be able to trust you to behave when I’m not in the room.”

Her stomach tumbled. “I know. You can. But Daddy, I have to get out of this bed. Seven days is too long. I feel fine. I didn't run a fever all day yesterday. All I wanted was to take a shower.”

By the flash of anger in his eyes, she wasn’t making her situation any better.

“That’s fine, gypsy, but you’re still weak.

You need my help to take a shower. What if you had slipped and hurt yourself?

No one would have come in to check on you until lunch.

They shouldn’t have had to. You were supposed to be in bed.

If Doc Bradford hadn’t called to say he was on the way out to check on you, I might not have made it back until this afternoon. ”

She got that she’d messed up. He didn’t have to make her feel worse than she already did. Now she wished she hadn’t broken the lamp, so she could throw it at him. At the very least, she wished the bed wasn’t so high so she could stomp her foot.

“I can take a shower all by myself!”

“There is no ‘all by myself,’ damn it. That’s not how things are gonna work.” Chance’s anger practically radiated from him in waves. She thought she’d seen him angry before, but she’d been wrong. Very wrong.

It sent a frisson of fear up her spine. Not a fear of her Daddy. Never that. But a fear of what her life would be like without him. She shouldn’t say anything.

Unfortunately, she wasn’t the best at following advice, even when it was her own.

“Even for a Daddy, you’re a bit of a control freak.

Has anyone ever told you that?” When his jaw clenched, she quickly kept going.

“I appreciate all your concern. I’ve never had anyone care about me like you do.

You control everyone and everything because you’re a Daddy, and that’s what Daddies do.

But I have to do things by myself. I came here by myself, and I’ll leave by myself.

And since I’ll be by myself for the rest of my life, I have to get used to doing things by myself.

So, for me, there is a ‘by myself’ whether you like it or not. ”

Okay, that came out a lot harsher when she said it than it had sounded in her head.

He was trying to take care of her. She loved it, but it was going to make leaving too hard.

And she had to leave because eventually she would only bring more trouble to the ranch and all the people he cared about.

Then he wouldn’t want her anywhere near him.

She wasn’t sure she could survive that, so she had to leave. And soon.

He lowered his chin like a bull getting ready to charge. “That is not how you talk to your Daddy, naughty girl.”

She hadn’t known him long, but he struck her as the kind of man with a long fuse before his anger exploded. How did she always seem to set it off? This was the point in the conversation most people would run.

But, hey. Show no fear, right?

She notched up her chin and ran her finger across the side table. Thinking her butt might be more in need of protection than anything else, she did her best to appear casual as she baby stepped closer to the couch.

Feeling the need to establish a boundary, she said the first adult thing that came to her mind. “You may be the boss of the ranch, but you still aren’t the boss of me.”

"Sit down." He didn’t raise his voice, but that had definitely been an order.

A full-on, deep, rumbly Daddy voice order if she’d ever heard one. She lost all semblance of poise when she slipped on the wooden floor and plopped down on the sofa.

Stupid footed pajamas. She’d forgotten she still had them on. Wearing pajamas when he was fully clothed left her feeling vulnerable and exposed. And Little.

Why hadn’t she taken the time to get dressed? Oh yeah, because she’d been on the way to take a shower. But she couldn’t project a woman of the world and in control persona in footed onesie pajamas. Not that she presented that image well with all her clothes on.

Besides, she liked how her pajamas made her feel pretty and Little. Especially now that he stood in front of her, all growly Daddy Dom. And didn’t that just say everything?

How did he do that? Command her body so completely it followed his orders without her permission. Lucky for her, her body and her mind were two different things. She shot to her feet.

"Not smart, sassy girl." He stepped closer until he was in her space. The heat of his body warmed her. A feeling she liked way too much. “You should have stuck with your gut. That attitude ain’t going to do anything for you except make sittin’ way less comfortable.”

"I don’t have to do what you say." Yeah, her mouth had a mind of its own, which always landed her in a world of trouble. She and her mouth were going to have a talk. If her Daddy didn’t kill her first. The look in his eyes made her take a step back, pressing her calves against the couch.

Not that stepping back did any good. He followed her, continuing to invade her space.

With a thick, rough finger, he lifted her chin, forcing her to meet his gaze.

"One of us is going to take care of you, babygirl. And that one’s gonna be me.

So, as long as you’re here, you damn well do have to do what I say, when I say it. "

Her anger battled with her desire, not to mention a healthy dose of her self-preservation. Self-preservation won, and she would have taken another step back if the couch hadn’t stopped her. She would have toppled back down if he hadn’t caught her. All that did was make her madder.

She stomped her foot, wishing she were brave enough to stomp on his. “Step back."

He grinned with anything but humor as he answered her demand. "No."

Her nipples hardened from the heat in his gaze. There was more than anger there. Now she was the one with reddening cheeks.

Bad nipples. Down .

She turned away from the couch, continuing to back away from him until her back pressed against the window. The cold window pane chilled her even through her pajamas .

He followed, flattening his palms against the window, capturing her. "I think it’s about time to have that discussion I told you about, Calliope Joy Joplin. We obviously need to get a few things straight. Now go sit down on that couch where I told you to."

She sucked in a breath, cool air filling her lungs. That was probably the cause of the wicked tingling dancing through her body at his words. She released the breath she hadn’t meant to hold and tried to breathe out slowly, trying to control herself.

She'd been around men like Chance all her life. Okay, not as gorgeously sexy, but still. She knew what Daddies expected. Unless he was around, she was a good girl. Giving in and keeping the peace was her go-to strategy. She could easily say the right words and make everything better.

She considered this option. For two seconds. But something inside her wouldn’t let her do that. Not now. And not with him. Something about him drove her to push the limits to see what would happen.

Maybe it was because she knew she’d have to leave soon, and the unfairness of it made her mad. She wanted more from him. Wanted more with him. And sometimes that meant giving as good as she got and worrying about the consequences later.

So, she said the one thing guaranteed to push him over the edge. "Make me, Chan?—"

He grabbed her arms, pulled her to him, and crashed his lips down on hers before she finished saying his name.

It was a good thing he held her because the fire in his kiss weakened her knees.

Pressed against his chest, her nipples scraped against him, and the fire that stirred completely consumed her.

Forget the blizzards of Wyoming and the thunder and lightning of Texas, his kiss created the fiercest storm inside her she’d ever known.

All thought disappeared as her body took control .

She would have said she’d been kissed before. But if this was what a kiss could be, she had not. She was swept up in the tumult of want and need. No, she hadn’t known kisses like this existed.

It wasn’t a gentle kiss, but then Chance wasn’t a gentle man. This kiss was firm, angry, and filled with more passion than she ever could've imagined.

A few times, she’d thought he came close to kissing her, but he’d always held himself back. She had no idea what had changed, and she didn’t care. Not right now. This moment was made for one thing, and it wasn’t regret. This moment was made for this kiss.

And at that moment, she knew only one thing. There would be no turning back now. Ever. When he broke their kiss, he pinned her in place with a gaze filled with the same desires coursing through her. He recognized the moment for what it was, just like her.

It may not be something that lasts, but it marked the beginning of something new.

Determination shone through his gaze. His jaw tightened, stirring a flutter in her abdomen. “Definitely time for that discussion, gypsy.”

“What discussion?” she asked, as if she didn’t know. Holy crap.