“So you’re just parked along the mountain?”
“Pretty much. Did you call to give me a weather update?”
Pippa turned her head at his rough tone.
“No, a calf update.”
He waited to hear they’d lost it.
“Dad and Corrine got it warmed up and managed to get some milk into it. It’s hangin’ on. The storm’s heading our way, so the ranch hands went out with lights to track down the momma and bring her back. Such a lot of trouble for a calf.”
“But it’s our responsibility.”
“You’re preachin’ to the choir, Ross. I was raised a rancher too. Now, about the information you need. Did you get a chance to read over those emails?”
“Not yet. I was driving.”
“Well what are you doing now?”
Ross hoped to hell Pippa couldn’t hear Josiah speaking, but she sat close enough, practically in his lap, that he wouldn’t be surprised if she could. How to respond to his brother? Tell him he and Pippa were curled up together in the back seat?
“I’ll get to the emails.”
Pippa gave him the side-eye.
“Thanks, Josiah,” he added so he wouldn’t sound like a complete ass.
“I’m surprised I got you on the phone. I called four times.”
He hadn’t thought of it when his phone rang. “Service is spotty. You must have caught a signal between snowflakes. If you don’t hear from me, don’t send out a search party for at least a couple days.”
A smile leaked into his brother’s voice. “You think I give a damn about your ass freezing in the Rockies?”
Pippa’s smile told Ross that she could, in fact, hear.
“Bye, dickhead.”
“Bye, you old fuck.”
He ended the call and slipped his phone into the pocket on the back of the driver’s seat.
“Why did Josiah call you an old fuck?”
He damn near groaned. Hearing the prim little rule-follower scientist cuss twice in the same hour made his attraction to her spike.
“He thinks I’m older than my years.”
She grew quiet, but he was getting used to these spells. In fact, they were growing on him. He was the first to admit he liked to talk. Discussing every small detail of the ranch and protection company came as second nature to him. While he might be extroverted in this manner, Pippa was not.
Isolated in the middle of a blizzard with the woman gave him a new respect for her. He also felt an urge to extract every single secret from her.
Such as did she date? What was her type?
And did she slide her fingers into her pussy at night and pleasure herself?
She snapped her head to look at him. “Am I crushing you? I can move to the other end of the seat.”
Confusion pinched his brows. “No, why?”
“You groaned.”
Fuck, did he?
“Just thinking of that calf is all.”
“I’m sure it’s worrisome, being away from the ranch. I’m sorry I dragged you off.”
This time he couldn’t resist cupping her cheek and tilting her head to meet his gaze. Christ, her skin was silky and more tender than he imagined.
“Pippa, let’s get it straight now that you needing help is not something to apologize for. Even if I didn’t work as a protection officer, I’d still help you. Got that?”
Her eyelids fluttered. For a moment, he thought he’d gone too far, been too harsh with her. As a young girl, she’d run off to the house with a red face whenever he or his brothers took the teasing too far.
But then she tipped her head against his palm and shut her eyes.
His heart slammed his ribs as he cradled her face, staring at the peaceful expression she wore. In the darkness, he couldn’t make out her freckles. And he wanted to see them up close.
Instead… He stared at her lips, a plump shadow of enticement and torture. His balls clenched.
He never realized he was moving in to kiss her until her eyes popped open and she pulled free.
Dropping his hand, he fought to cover the moment. He grabbed his hat and stuffed it down on his head again, centering the brim low on his eyes. “You should get what sleep you can, Pippa. I’ll start the truck in a little bit and warm it back up.”
She snuggled against his shoulder once more. “I’m warm.”
Fuck.
No way in hell could he sleep, so he flipped through the emails. After reading through information on several of her coworkers, and seeing the same boring lives over and over, he had to wonder how a woman with a mind like Pippa’s managed to work with such duds. She must find herself yawning her way through conversations at the water cooler—unless they stood around discussing gene editing.
Which they might. He and his family talked ranch life, didn’t they? Hell, at the last bonfire a few weeks back, he and the employees of WEST Protection kicked back with beers and talked over their cases long into the night.
He was a dud too, it seemed. Older than his time for damn sure.
He flipped to an email with an in-depth look at MIZR and all the executives of the board. He followed the trails down rabbit hole after rabbit hole, until he knew whose wife had slept with which director and who wintered in the Caribbean. What he didn’t find was a single person with a motive.
Nobody with ties to another company looking to steal Pippa’s research. He shot off a text to his brother to send someone to start interrogating the staff at the lab.
“Don’t you ever sleep?” Pippa’s question broke through his thoughts.
He offered a tip of his lips in a gentle smile. “Speak for yourself, Hamlin.”
She gave him a full smile in return. “What are you doing on your phone? I know you’re not crushing candy.”
He grunted with amusement. “I’m investigating your workplace and everybody in it.”
When she sat up straighter, her thigh brushed the length of his, shooting sparks of fire through every inch of his body. Just when he thought he was finished being aroused by his family friend, she did a small thing like move.
“Did you find anything about them?”
“No. That’s why I’m sending one of our team to question them.”
Her mouth fell open into a perfect O…and he refused to think about what would fit inside that opening.
Fuck, he just did.
She wet her lips, making his pain worse.
“Won’t that alert whoever it is that we’re on to them?”
“Exactly. People slip up more when they get scared.”
She leaned forward, dropping her face into her hands. She scrubbed them over her face and raked her fingers through her hair, freeing the scent that’d been driving him crazy all day. Two days? Hell, he’d lost track.
All he knew was if he sat here with her much longer, he couldn’t account for his actions.
He reached behind him for the door handle. “Time to start the truck.”
* * * * *
Pippa swallowed down another blueberry bar and then extended her cold fingers toward the heating vents. Ross had the engine running and the heat blasting while he cleared the snow off the truck.
The long hours of the night provided little sleep but strangely she didn’t mind the exhaustion.
Maybe it was sugar rushing through her veins…or time spent with Ross.